‘Vax’ is the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year
Recommended for English
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has chosen ‘vax’ as the word of the year for 2021.
According to OED, vax, when used as a noun means a vaccine or vaccination. But as a verb, it means to treat (someone) with a vaccine to produce immunity against disease; vaccinate.
This year, due to the pandemic, words related vaccines have become very common. So, the use of words such as double-vaxxed, unvaxxed and anti-vaxxer increased a lot too. This year, the use of the word pandemic has also increased by more than 57,000%. But OED chose vax as it made “the most striking impact”.
The word of the year
People use both ‘vax’ and ‘vaxx’ to spell the word but ‘vax’ is more common. The word was first recorded in the English language in 1799. Surprisingly, other related words such as vaccinate and vaccination both first appeared in 1800. They all come from the Latin word vacca, which means cow. You can learn more about the origin of the word here.
What is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)?
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP).
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