'Particularly striking term': 'Vax' declared as Oxford Dictionary's word of the year in 2021
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The use of the word pandemic has also increased by more than 57,000 per cent this year
Vax, which is short for a vaccine, has been chosen as the word of the year by lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary. The use of the word vaccine surged ever since COVID-19 vaccination campaign has started in different parts of world.
As per a statement by Oxford, when lexicographers began digging into English language corpus data it quickly became apparent that vax was a "particularly striking term". The word has generated numerous derivatives that can now be seen in a wide range of informal contexts, from vax sites and vax cards to getting vaxxed and being fully vaxxed.
The dictionary's editors wrote, "For the first time this year our report also examines how the language of vaccines has influenced languages other than English, looking at a selection of the most-spoken languages across the globe."
The use of the word pandemic has also increased by more than 57,000 per cent this year.
"We examine the data-based evidence of vaccine-related changes to the lexicon, including its history, neologisms, and regional variations. For the first time this year our report also examines how the language of vaccines has influenced languages other than English, looking at a selection of the most-spoken languages across the globe," said Oxford in a statement.
Earlier in 2020, Lockdown was named expression of the year by both Collins and Oxford Dictionary.
In 2019, there were 4,000 recorded examples of the lockdown being utilised. In 2020, this had taken off to in excess of a fourth of 1,000,000.
The pandemic has affected the daily use of language in a massive manner, as a result, six of Collins' 10 words of the year in 2020 are related to the global health crisis. "Coronavirus", "social distancing", "self-isolate" and "furlough" as well as "lockdown" and "key worker" were included in the long list of 10 words of the year.