For us in the Northern Hemisphere the latest season of the flu has well and truly started.
The Spanish flu pandemic back in 1918 is perhaps the most well-known outbreak. 2004 brought the fear of an avian or bird flu pandemic, and this year has put the Mexican or swine flu into the spotlight so much so that according to Google’s zeitgeist for 2009 swine flu has been the most dominant news item in the UK, and rival Bing lists it as the third most frequently looked up term in the UK, after Michael Jackson and Twitter. (It’s down in seventh place on Yahoo’s Year in Review list.)
There’s just plain old flu, there’s apparently girl or lady flu, and there’s the more well-established male counterpart: the man flu (aka as man cold). Enjoy this clip!
Read more about language and words in the news.
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