Physical distancing, social distancing: constraint and adaptation ; Distanciation physique, distanciation sociale : contrainte et adaptation

International audience ; Used by the WHO, then taken up by the Covid 19 scientific council to the government, the term social distancing immediately revealed a heavy semantic ambiguity between a distance to be operated between classes or social groups "social distancing" and physical distance. which was desired by the health and political authorities to avoid the contamination of individuals and the spread of the virus in the social and geographical space. The article considers the semantic shifts that have taken place and the behaviors that have been induced. It highlights that this new situation generated a lexical explosion linked to covid 19 and very quickly the population appropriated the "scholarly" vocabulary of doctors and scientists. Similarly, the population was able to quickly make up for the lack of physical interaction (hugs, handshakes) with a new gesture of greeting such as the "elbow bump" (hello from the elbow), the "footshake" à la Wuhan ( foot salute) and the fist bump check (fist against fist). The question of the body is central to physical distancing because the body is an excellent indicator of tensions in society, whether it concerns the hygiene behaviors that have been put in place, practices of limited sociability (mark of affection, ). The application of the rules of social distancing has, in particular, prevented all rituals and disrupted the process of accepting death (putting in a coffin, burial, etc.).The analysis highlights that overall people have shown responsibility in respecting health measures, the author notes that it is however necessary to underline the difficulties of adaptation, the voluntary or forced circumvention of the rules imposed and the fact that we can wonder about the resilience of individuals in the face of an epidemic whose evolution is still difficult for scientists to assess. ; Utilisé par l’OMS, puis repris par le conseil scientifique Covid 19 auprès du gouvernement, le terme de distanciation sociale a révélé d’emblée une lourde ambigüité sémantique entre ...