The sixth edition of the “Portuguese Language Orthographic Vocabulary” (Volp) has 1,160 new words. The pandemic accounts for 5% of them: there are 65 entries associated with the new coronavirus crisis, which includes terms in English. That is the case of “covid-19”, “home office”, and “lockdown”. Other entries linked to the pandemic were left out of the edition, which has a total of 382,000 words. “Coronaplauso” (clapping during quarantine to thank health workers) and “coronababy” (babies born in the pandemic) are some of them.

The new edition of this dictionary, which shows words without describing their meaning, was released in July and is available on the Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL) website and on the app. The previous edition was published in 2009.

To be included in Volp, the entry has to meet a series of criteria. First, the expression must translate the idea it wants to convey efficiently. Second, the word must be really new, that is, there can be no older entries that convey its concept better. How much the word is used in society is also important, as well as its inclusion in academic, journalistic, and official texts.

Another word that was left out of the Volp is “covidivórcio” (couples being separated in the pandemic). The term has been included in Real Academia Española’s dictionary, but according to the ABL team, it had little or no repercussion in Brazil.

Glossary

Check out definitions of some of the words included in Volp’s new edition:

Infodemia: Excessive amount of information about a particular topic, which could be true or false, but spreads quickly.

Nomophobia: Fear of being without a cell phone or devices such as a computer or tablet.

Essential worker: Workers who are authorized by the government to continue working during the phase in which the circulation of people is restricted because of the importance of their work.

What is the ABL?

Inaugurated on July 20th, 1897 and headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, it is a literary institution that had writer Machado de Assis (1839-1908) as one of its founders. It has 40 members, and its objective is to cultivate national language and literature.

What is Volp?

The work officially compiles the vocabulary of the Portuguese language in Brazil. Unlike common dictionaries, it does not include the meaning of the words, only the correct spelling, classification, and gender of each one.

Questions
1) Which is true?
a) Volp is a dictionary that has the meaning of new words.
b) “Covidivórcio” became a popular word in Brazil during the pandemic.
c) 65 new words associated with the new coronavirus have been included in Volp, including “coronaplauso”.
d) English words, used in Brazil, have also been included in Volp.

2) Which new words did you learn in the pandemic?

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