What word best encapsulates 2021? Well , according to the folks at Oxford Languages, producer of the Oxford English Dictionary, “vax” takes the cake. Oxford reported, "A relatively rare word in our corpus until this year, by September it was over 72 times more frequent than at the same time last year." The word “vaccine” first appeared in English in 1799, following Edward Jenner’s work on the smallpox vaccine. However, Fiona McPherson, a senior editor at Oxford Languages, said that according to their corpus, “vax” was rarely used until this year. "When you add to that its versatility in forming other words -- vaxxie, vax-a-thon, vaxinista -- it became clear that vax was the standout in the crowd. Vax and vaxx are both accepted spellings but the form with one x is more common,” she added. Good to know...I'll stick with the one x.
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