The Missing Variant - Language Log

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"WHO — You cannot be Xi-rious! The WHO’s decision to skip the Greek letter Xi in its ludicrous naming system shows exactly who controls it", by David Spencer, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer, 2021/11/28:

(source)

From AntC:

You might remember when this latest Covid mutation was first found in Southern Africa, it was going to be named Nu.

But it ended up being named Omicron. I had assumed that's because a couple of lesser-known variants had already been in the pipeline. But no (allegedly), Nu was skipped because it was too close to a homophone for 'New'.

Xi (pronounced 'Chi', or 'Ki' with long 'i'/'aye' in Brit English) was skipped because it was too close to a homograph for … you cannot be Xi-rious. (Gotta love the pun.)

The Taiwan News correspondent must have had a lot of fun writing that piece.

… or too close to a homophone for a certain "brand of personal lubricant"?

Checking the facts:

"WHO skipped two Greek alphabet letters in naming coronavirus variant", AP Fact Check (11/27/21):

CLAIM: The World Health Organization skipped two letters of the Greek alphabet, nu and xi, when naming omicron, a newly identified variant of the coronavirus.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: True. The agency said it did so to stop people confusing nu with “new” and to avoid “causing offense” because Xi is a common last name.

THE FACTS: The WHO on Friday gave the name “omicron” to a new variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The agency also deemed it a “variant of concern.”

Omicron was first reported to the U.N. health agency by scientists in South Africa and has been identified in several other countries as well, The Associated Press has reported.

Meanwhile:

In 2013 the Fuxi Institution compiled a ranking of the 400 most common surnames in China….  According to the study, the following surnames are not among the 400 most common surnames… Xí (习/習)"

(source)

If those in charge of such matters keep skipping like this, they'll soon run out of Greek letters to name all the future variants.

Selected readings

• "Chinese coronavirus linguistic war" (2/22/20)
• "Vaccines that do a good job of not preventing disease and death" (5/28/21)
• "Merriam-Webster gives 'vaccine' a new definition" (4/30/21)
• "We Need To Get Real About How the Pandemic Will End:  Even more transmissible new variants means that more people will get infected or vaccinated, and that's how it will all end", zeynep, Insight (5/28/21)

[Thanks to Mark Metcalf]

November 28, 2021 @ 12:55 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Alphabets, Language and medicine, Language and politics, Names

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