‘Face condom’: pandemic inspires new German words

And other stories from the stranger side of life

Angela Merkel pictured wearing a white face mask.
Your guide to the best columns and commentary on Wednesday 12 August
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The Covid-19 pandemic has inspired a whole host of new words in Germann. “Coronamutationsgebiet” is a mashup of the words for “corona”, “mutation” and “area”. It refers to a place where new variants of the virus are spreading. “Coronafußgruß” means “corona-foot greeting” and describes the alternative to handshakes, while “gesichtskondom” means “face condom”.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.