The words we used this year

• Date: 19 December 2020
• Author: Rosita Boland
• Published date: 19 December 2020
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

New Normal The new normal was anything but normal. We were "locked down" in our homes. Shuttered businesses, closed offices, queues outside supermarkets, children away from their schools

and friends for months, wearing masks, obsessively washing our hands, no live culture or sports, not moving further than five kilometres from home, no social activities, no festivals, no spontaneity, no overseas holidays, no parties, no church services, no visiting nursing home residents, no hugging, heartbreakingly tiny funerals, and so many postponed weddings. There isn't a person in the country whose lives have not been deeply affected in some way by the pandemic. We all just want our former lives back again; those precious old normal lives.

Chickpeas Own up. You bought some, didn't you? At the beginning of all this, when everyone went out to stock up, along with the loo rolls and pasta, umpteen tins of chickpeas were fired into the trolley. They were meant to save us in some way, in case the supermarkets ran out of everything fresh and edible -- which never happened, and for which they should receive much credit. We can blame the much-shared New York Times chickpea recipe that "broke the internet" by apparently transforming these humble pulses into a gourmet dinner. People who actually tried it out weren't convinced.

Wet Pubs The nastiest ever expression for the pubs so many of us love, and one that really does not make sense. What's the obvious opposite of a wet pub? A dry one? One with no booze at all? Nope. It's a pub - or "gastropub" as it now seems to be called - that serves food along with pints of beer and glasses of wine. All over the country, "wet" pubs that committed the crime of offering no more sustenance than a packet of Taytos remained closed for much of the pandemic. In Dublin, they never opened after the first lockdown. We still don't know how many, when they are finally allowed to open, will survive.

Substantial Meal

Two hotly debated words. What is the definition of a "substantial meal"? It mattered, because the only pubs that were permitted to open were those serving food. And customers could only go there if they ordered a substantial meal worth at least €9 to go with their alcoholic drinks. For a time, there was even a ridiculous, existentialist spat about what would happen if people ordered, but did not actually eat, their substantial meals. For the record, a toasted sandwich does not qualify as a substantial meal.

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