At the start of the year, few people had heard of Wuhan, the R number and herd immunity. A close contact was a sound source for a journalist.
Social distancing was a deliberate avoidance of people not much liked. And flattening the curve was a post-festive season diet programme.
But everything has changed. This year, old words took on new meaning and new words entered the popular lexicon. Covid-19 is not a discerning virus and has touched the famous and those less so.
French President Emmanuel Macron, US President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have been among the good and the great to catch the virus.