Lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary have declared “vax” as 2021’s ‘word of the year’. The title aims to encapsulate the year in one word which could tell about a world that is struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and talking about vaccines. According to Oxford Language’s annual ‘Word of The Year’ report, the usage of the word “vax” caught speed in January this year and by September, it rose by over 72 times compared to last year. The report also includes the numerous derivatives generated by the usage of the word, such as vax site, vax cards, getting vaxxed, fully vaxxed, vaxxie, etc. “Of all the vaccine-related words which have spiked in frequency this year, perhaps the most striking is vax,” the report said. According to the report, the usage of the word “vax” in the sense it is used today — to mean a vaccine or vaccination — dates back to the 1980s. However, the origin of the word goes way back to a much earlier term anti-vax, from the early 1800s, which is a shortened form of anti-vaccinist. Until the usage of the word shot up this year, the word was relatively rare in the Oxford Languages’ corpus, said the report.
The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines vax as a vaccine or vaccination when used as a noun. As a verb, vax is defined as “vaccinate” or “treat (someone) with a vaccine to produce immunity against a disease”. The dictionary also defines more informally used terms derived from “vax” such as vaxxie, vax-a-thon, vaxcation or vaxication, vaxdar, vaxinista, vaxxident.
While vaxxie means a vaccination selfie typically posted on social media, vax-a-thon is a vaccination event immunising people in large numbers. Vaxdar, defined as a person’s supposed ability to tell if someone else is vaccinated or not, and vaxxident, defined as an accident linked to vaccines in any way, have humourous overtones.
The report, titled “Vax, A report into the language of vaccines” talks about the developments in the usage of vaccine-related terms. The report includes the regional variations of the terms extending to other languages as well. For example, the report included the Hindi word “teeka” and the similar Urdu word “teeka” as a variation of the term.
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