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scariant

noun

Etymology

Blend of scare + variant.

  1. derived from variāns
  2. derived from variant
  3. compounded as scariant — “scare + variant”

Definitions

  1. An unconfirmed or unstudied variant or strain of COVID-19 that causes widespread panic.

    • Public health officials derided the X-MPLE strain as a "scariant" last night.
    • Initial reactions have been sceptical at best, with prominent experts suggesting the apparent new strain looks more like a “scariant” – an unconfirmed strain causing a global scare – than a variant.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for scariant. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA