A big or a little "c"?

Le Robert, one of the two major commercial dictionaries in France, estimates in its 2022 edition that the word “covid” is written with a lower case and that it is rather masculine.

To designate the viral disease which has spread throughout the world, he distinguishes the generic term of "covid", as in the example "suspected covid", and the specific one of "Covid-19" with a capital letter.

Its competitor, the Larousse, systematically capitalizes, giving as possible spellings "COVID-19 or Covid-19".

Covid-19 is an acronym coined from English by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and adopted by the World Health Organization in February 2020. It stands for coronavirus disease of 2019 Its grammatical gender makes l subject of hesitation in French.

For Robert, "the use that makes law"

For Robert, it is "masculine or feminine", therefore more frequently masculine, while for Larousse, it is "feminine or masculine": more correct in feminine, but masculine in many speakers.

In his presentation of the 2022 dictionary, Le Robert believes that “it is use that makes the law.

If the feminine is adopted in French-speaking Canada, the masculine is for the moment the majority in France, where the opinion of the French Academy was delivered late, whereas the masculine was already well established ”.

Alain Rey, Jean Castex and Thomas Pesquet in the Robert

Le Robert added many words related to the pandemic.

Some very common in language today, such as "deconfinement", "distancing", "contact case", and others rarer, such as "aerosolization" ("air diffusion of fine particles by aerosol") or "saturometer" ("Device which measures the saturation of the blood with oxygen").

Linguist Alain Rey, one of the main creators of Le Robert dictionaries, who died in October, makes his entry among proper names, alongside Prime Minister Jean Castex, US President Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala, among others. Harris, or astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Culture

Why are “racialized”, “emoji” and “click & collect” entering the dictionary?

Culture

The French Academy has decided, it must be said "the" Covid-19

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