‘Vax’ is Oxford’s 2021 Word of the Year

Oxford Languages’ annual report names “Vax” as the Oxford Word of the Year for 2021 after a great uptick in the usage of the word was seen.

Vax, which was defined by Oxford as “a colloquialism meaning either vaccine or vaccination as a noun and vaccinate as a verb,” was used greatly during the course of 2021, with usage in September climbing up to 77 percent according to the report.

However, the word was rarely used before the COVID-19 struck, starting as a noun during the 1980s before being used as a verb in the 21st century.

Further data analysis showed that vax was most used in Australia, North America, and South East Asia, where the report added that use case for the word appealed mostly to media commentators as the need to shorten an otherwise long word was needed.

Oxford did not name a word of the year in 2020, instead opted to exploring how the language has evolved.

The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest over the last 12 months. (GFB)