German is pretty famous for its compound nouns, after all, they’re really easy to make! Here are just a few of the new German words that have come out during the corona pandemic since 2020:
Abstandsbier – distance+beer = meeting up to have a beer, but with appropriate social distancing
Anwesenheitskultur – presence+culture = companies with an established culture of all employees being physically on site during opening hours
Behelfsmaske – temporary+mask = an improvised (non-medical) face mask situation
Coronamüdigkeit – corona+exhaustion = this one is pretty obvious
Coronaspeck – corona+bacon = weight gained during lockdown
Ellenbogengruß – elbow+greeting = touching elbows instead of shaking hands
Fußgruß – feet+greeting = same idea, different body part
Fensterbesuch – window+visit = visiting someone without entering their home
Gesichtskondom – face+condom = this one is pretty self explanatory
Hamsteritis – hamster + itis = the tendency to buy in bulk and hoard items like toilet paper
Impfneid – vaccine+envy = being jealous of people in prioritized groups who have had access to vaccines
Impfdrängler – vaccine+pushy person/tailgater = people who can’t wait to get vaccinated and are being too pushy about it, like trying to skip to the front of the line
Jo-Jo-Lockdown – yoyo+lockdown = like yoyo weight, but with the lockdown – shutting down, opening up, then shutting back down again
Klopapierhysterie – toilet+paper+hysteria = people rushing to buy and hoard an obscene amount of toilet paper
Lockdownverweigerer – lockdown+refusenik = people refusing to comply with lockdown orders
Nacktnase – naked+nose = a nose that’s not covered by a mask
Nasenpimmel – nose+pecker = a nose that’s not covered by a mask, but with a penis joke
Virenschleuder – virus+centrifuge = people or situations that promote an unmitigated spread of the virus
Zoombombing – the same as in English, but it’s just as cute in German