Arabic words between dictionary and usage, Corona pandemic period as a case study

Abstract

Arabic is an old language which is deeply rooted in history. One of the
remarkable things is that today’s dictionary is not very different from that
of Old Arabic, and only very few new words are associated with modern
nomenclature and scientific and artistic terms.
In this paper, we will shed light on the Arabic lexis between their entries
to the dictionary and their actual usage; In order to analyse the phenomenon
of language in relation to reality, and the extent to which words and their
connotations are changing according to the developments of language
users (between just being words in the dictionary or being words employed
in real contexts), by answering the following questions: Are all words in
today’s Arabic dictionary usable, and what would be the fate of the new
words not yet recorded in the dictionary?
The study was based on a theoretical section in which some terms and
concepts were presented, and a practical section where some models are
presented by describing the linguistic reality and presenting some of the
vocabulary associated with the Corona pandemic that was frequently used
in this period, by adopting the descriptive approach and using analytical
mechanisms.
We have reached a number of conclusions, most notably, Arabic, like all
the other languages, is subject to change and transformation, and that each
new reality imposes a new language reality.