From the Delta variant to the Omicron variant, it seems like every week there is a new variant of Covid-19 or a subvariant of a given variant. Quite often you see disturbing headlines of a new strain of Covid-19 and the fear machine gets going. Enter the “scariant” – a bigger, scarier new variant of coronavirus, impervious to all previous vaccines and renders your immunity with impunity.
On 26 April 2021 a Cambridge Dictionary blog post had some word suggestions to add to the dictionary. Here is the definition for scariant:
any new variant of covid-19 that people are very worried about because of the way it is reported in the media, despite the lack of scientific evidence to suggest it is any more dangerous than the original virus
Cambridge Dictionary
Not to be outdone is the Urban Dictionary definition of scariant:
“Portmanteau combining scary and variant. Exaggerated fear of a COVID-19 variant.
What scariant is on the menu this week. India? South Africa? Or is it a double fusion super scariant?” (ChrisR41).”
The short video below, entitled “Variant, Scariant, Lab Error” discusses the new variant Deltacron which consists of strains of both the Delta and Omicron variants of Covid-19.
Social Media Trends as of October 23, 2022
Facebook #scariant: people are posting about this
Instagram #scariant: 198 posts
TikTok #scariant: 8,259 views
Google Trends: scariant first registered during the week of April 19, 2020 but didn’t reach its popularity peak until the last week of November that year.
Sources:
ChrisR41. “Scariant.” Urban Dictionary. April 22, 2021. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Scariant.
knowshares. Scariant meme. Imgflip. 2021. URL: https://imgflip.com/i/5wcobp.
OTV News channel. “Deltacron: Variant, ‘Scariant’, Lab Error… What We Know So Far.” YouTube. 2022. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEqFx16WthM.
“New words – 26 April 2021.” Cambridge Dictionary. March 5, 2021. URL: https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2021/04/26/new-words-26-april-2021/.
Topol, Eric. “How to Fix the Scariant Problem” tweet. Twitter. Mar 5, 2021. URL: https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1367932195243880449?lang=ca.