Oxford Languages chose vax to be its word of year in a year where much of the discussion has been about whether you've had one or both doses, and whether Pfizer, AstraZeneca, or Moderna.
The Oxford English Dictionary was founded in 2000 after the company that makes it decided that 2020 could not be summed up in one word. This year, the Oxford English Dictionary stated that the vaccine that is shorthand for vaccine was injected into the bloodstream of the English language during the Covid pandemic.
According to the firm, September's use of the term vax increased more than 72 percent from last year. The definition of vax, like other words related to vaccination, has been expanded to include fully vaxxed and vax card usage.
Oxford Languages also monitored the rise and fall in vaccine vocabulary from vaccine distribution in December 2020 to vaccine rollout, and vaccine passport becoming commonplace by mid-March.
According to Oxford Languages analysis, jab, which originated in the US English language, is now more common in Britain. Jag is a popular alternative to scotch.
Vax can also be used to refer to those who oppose the jab such as anti-vaxers or anti-vaxxers.
According to the report, the company stated that the trend was evident in other languages. The use of vacina in Portugal is 10 times more common than a decade ago. French vaccin refers almost exclusively to Covid inoculation.
Casper Grathwohl (the president of Oxford Languages) stated: Vax was an obvious choice when reviewing the language evidence. First, we noticed the dramatic spike in use. We ran the analysis, and we saw a story emerge that revealed how vax was at the center of our concerns this year.
There was evidence everywhere. This included dating apps (vax4vax) and pent up frustrations (hot Vax summer), as well as academic calendars (vaxx at school) and bureaucratic operations ("vax pass"). It is clear that vaccines have monopolised our discourse. This has changed how we think and talk about public health, community, and ourselves.
Vaccines are a concept that has been present in English since the late 1790s. Edward Jenner discovered cowpox could be used to protect against smallpox, a deadly virus.
The dictionary publisher analyzed news content from all over the globe to determine the frequency of the word's use.
Dr Mercedes Durham, a Cardiff University sociolinguistics reader, stated that the flexibility of vax was what made it logical. To me, the word almost has a meme quality. A meme is a way to take a picture and add words or other things. You can take vax, add passport or anti or double, and because it is so short you can add many things to it.
It's not surprising that it is something to do with vaccination. These things try to get a spirit for the times and people have spent more time thinking of vaccines than ever before.
She also stated that social media had the potential to have an effect, which means words created by younger generations are now more widely known.
Everybody in their family and their circle has new words and they tend to stay within the circle. Social media, when it comes to vaccinations, can be a powerful tool. If you see someone tweeting that they were double vaxxed and another tweet about the same, you will pick up on it and you start spreading information.
According to the report, lexicographers are rarely able to see a single topic have such an impact on language that it becomes a crucial part of everyday communication. The Oxford Languages Monitor corpus of English monitored a global surge in vaccine-related vocabulary as reports emerged about medical breakthroughs and the rollout (or strollout) of vaccines.
