Coronavirus rhyming slang. Some jottings on the words spawned by the pandemic

Abstract

This paper discusses the emergence of new rhyming slang (henceforth RS) for the concepts surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Given that RS is not currently at its most productive (see Thorne, Reference Thorne2014: x–xi; Green, Reference Green2017: 1; Burridge & Manns, Reference Burridge and Manns2022), it may be surprising to learn that a new set of words has been created to refer to a new reality of pandemic life. In this respect, it is worth noting that RS serves one of the main purposes of slang in general (see Partridge, Reference Partridge1970: 6) which is to function as a coping strategy for the primal fears of disease and death. The coping function of slang (see Benczes & Burridge, Reference Benczes, Burridge and Allan2019: 75–76; Burridge & Manns, Reference Burridge and Manns2020) is indeed one of the major reasons for the proliferation of light-hearted slangisms over the past couple of years (Thorne, Reference Thorne2020), including a host of blends (Roig–Marín, Reference Roig–Marín2021a, Reference Roig–Marín2021b)– upwards of 40 per cent of all new coronavirus-related words (Moldovan, Reference Moldovan2020)– and a whole glut of synonyms for COVID–19, the latter a subject I have dealt with elsewhere (Lillo, Reference Lillo2020).