Oxford Names "VAX" as Word of 2021

Oxford English Dictionary selected "Vax" as the Word of the Year for 2021, Sputnik reported on Wednesday.

The board of the world's popular English language dictionary defined the word as "a colloquialism meaning either vaccine or vaccination as a noun and vaccinate as a verb."

It asserted that the usage of such a term was limited and rare until this year as it was used more than 72 times, compared to last year.

Regarding the history of the word, it was coined for the first time in the 1980s as a noun. Later on, it was functioned as verb.

"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 explained in the report.

As 2021 was mainly the year that witnessed the rise of vaccine production, and vaccination rollouts around the world, the selected word was commonly used in North America, Australia, and South East Asia, however, the usage of it was obviously phenomenal in the UK, and English speakers.