new normal

From new +‎ normal.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌnjuː ˈnɔːml̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌn(j)u ˈnɔɹm(ə)l/

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• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)məl
• Hyphenation: new norm‧al

new normal (plural new normals)

1. (chiefly Canada, US, idiomatic) A current prevailing situation which has emerged recently, that differs dramatically from the previous one and is expected to remain. [from 1920s]

   The new normal for this country is simply to survive economically.

   • 1922 August, B. H. Hibbard, “Effect of Change of Price of Produce on Intensity of Cultivation”, in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, volume XXXVI, number 4, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 659:

     However, the abnormal condition may last for a few years, and the tendency to return to the former balance may never be more than partially realized. That is to say, the abnormal situation may persist until it becomes a new normal.

     This is the earliest occurrence of the term recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary.

   • 1949 December 14, George H. Coppers (witness), “Statement of George H. Coppers, President, National Biscuit Co.; Accompanied by George A. Mitchell, Vice President, and E. W. Barto, General Counsel”, in Utilization of Farm Crops: Price Spreads: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, First Session […], Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published 1950, →OCLC, page 1107:

     Well, it is a fact that in most of the food businesses your sales have increased very greatly in the past few years. Whether this is a permanent new level, and whether we are some day going back to what we call a normal level or did call a normal level, I do not know. Maybe this is a new normal and, of course, there is a lag between the time farm products go down, and the time that a processed food product goes down, and the length of that time lag is dependent upon the complexity of the processes through which the basic commodity goes, until it reaches the form in which it gets to the consumer.

   • 1954 February 26, Thomas G. Walters (witness), “Statement of Thomas G. Walters, Operations Director, Government Employees’ Council”, in Fringe Benefits for Federal Employees: Hearings before the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, Second Session on S. 2665 […], Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 105:

     Clothing styles lead us quickest into new normals and out of old ones, as we can see quite readily by looking over the pictures in old magazines and books.

   • 1966 June 2, Robert A[nson] Heinlein, chapter 14, in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, book 2 (A Rabble in Arms), page 152:

     I hope you will comply willingly; it will speed the day when I can bow out and life can get back to normal—a new normal, free of the Authority, free of guards, free of troops stationed on us, free of passports and searches and arbitrary arrests.

   • 2000, Sheryl Gurrentz, “Section 3: Dealing with Physical Changes”, in The Guilt-free Guide to Your New Life As a Mom: Practical Ways to Take Care of Yourself, Your Life & Your Baby—All at the Same Time, Glendale, Calif.: Perspective Publishing, →ISBN, page 35:

     After nine months of pregnancy, I'm sure you're ready to call your body your own and return to normal. The truth is, you probably won't feel "normal" for a while, especially if you're nursing. Even then, your new normal may turn out to be somewhat different from your old normal. […] Your body deserves time and attention during the weeks and months after your baby's birth so it can create the new normal as quickly and comfortably as possible.

   • 2007 January 30, James Kanter, Andrew C. Revkin, “World scientists near consensus on warming”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-22:

     But scientists involved in the effort warned that squabbling among teams and government representatives from more than 100 countries – over how to portray the probable amount of sea-level rise during the 21st century – could distract from the basic finding that a warming world will be one in which shrinking coastlines are the new normal for centuries to come.

   • 2018, Alan J. Singer, “Politics of Historical Memory”, in New York’s Grand Emancipation Jubilee: Essays on Slavery, Resistance, Abolition, Teaching, and Historical Memory, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 165:

     The exhibit concluded with the statement about what the modern world owes to the Age of Revolution. It claims that the Age of Revolution “created several ‘new normals’,” among them that “slavery was fundamentally inhuman and had to be abolished”; […] But of course, these were not “normals” for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and are still not “normals” in much of the world today.

   • 2018, Xi Jinping, “The New Normal: How to Respond and Adapt”, in [anonymous], transl., The Governance of China, volume II, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, →ISBN, section I, page 261:

     How should we respond to the new normal? China's economic development is now in the new normal. This conclusion is drawn from analyzing the world economic cycle, China's development stage, and the interaction between the two. This conclusion has been widely recognized by the rest of the world. According to the IMF [International Monetary Fund], China's economic development is in the new normal, so is global economic development.

     Excerpts from a speech delivered in Mandarin at the Central Conference on Economic Work, 18 December 2015.

   • 2020, Kim Stanley Robinson, chapter 6, in The Ministry for the Future, London: Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN:

     For a while, therefore, it looked like the great heat wave would be like mass shootings in the United States—mourned by all, deplored by all, and then immediately forgotten or superseded by the next one, until they came in a daily drumbeat and became the new normal.

   • 2021 March 23, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Jenny Gross, “Suspect charged with 10 counts of murder in Boulder, Colo., shooting”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-23:

     Representative Joe Neguse of Colorado said mass shootings could not be the "new normal."

   • 2022 February 1, Damian Carrington, “Extreme heat in oceans ‘passed point of no return’ in 2014”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-30:

     Extreme heat in the world's oceans passed the "point of no return" in 2014 and has become the new normal, according to research.

   • 2022 November 16, Philip Haigh, “Network news: TPE under fire over ‘unacceptable’ cancellations”, in Rail, number 970, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6:

     It's becoming the new normal on a network with far too many trains being cancelled, and too many cancelled at short notice causing chaos for commuters and local communities.

• new normal on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “new normal, n.” under “new, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022.
• “new normal, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.