Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has many of us using words and phrases we weren’t before, from geopolitical terms like rump state to military lingo such as MANPADS.
We’re also learning to decipher slogans and spot differences between Russian and Ukrainian spellings amidst a conflict where information is treated as its own battlefield.
Tracking surges in the words we use is part of linguist Grant Barrett’s job. He is the co-host of A Way with Words, a public radio show about words and language, and a vice president of the American Dialect Society.
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