Thirty-Four Days: Inside Merriam-Webster’s Emergency Coronavirus Update

In early January 2020, news stories began appearing about a new respiratory illness. By February 11th, the disease had a name: COVID-19. The staff at Merriam-Webster took unprecedented measures to respond to this unprecedented news. The previous record-holder for fastest coinage-to-entry, AIDS, had taken two years to appear in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. At 34 days, the COVID-19 entry smashed that record, illustrating the urgency of the situation, the fitness of the resources available to modern lexicography, and the essential value of dictionaries to public life.