'Vax' is Oxford English Dictionary publisher's 2021 Word of the Year
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'Vax' is the Word of the Year for 2021, according to the annual report from Oxford Languages.
Defined as "a colloquialism meaning either vaccine or vaccination as a noun and vaccinate as a verb," vax was relatively rare until this year, the company, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary, said Monday.
In September, vax appeared more than 72 times more frequently than the year before, said Oxford Languages, which analyzes news content to track changes in the English language.
The word first appeared as a noun in the 1980s and then started to be used as a verb in the early 21st century, according to the report.
"It has generated numerous derivatives that we are now seeing in a wide range of informal contexts, from vax sites and vax cards to getting vaxxed and being fully vaxxed, no word better captures the atmosphere of the past year than vax," Oxford Languages said.
