Today I explained to my students that “untact” will never, ever be used by English speakers because it sounds dumb, and also sort of sounds like “tactless,” rather than what they think it means (which we have a perfectly good English term for: “socially distanced”). Then I learned that, nope, the word in question is “on:tact” which apparently is sort of the etymological demonic spawn of “untact” + “online”; meaning, “socially distanced but connected online.” Again, we have words to say this already: “online event,” or “online contact.”
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