Vax declared Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year

Forget "jab". The buzzword of 2021 is "vax".

According to the lexicographers at the Oxford Languages, the word "vax" had "injected itself into the bloodstream of the English language" during the pandemic.

The company that created Oxford English Dictionary (OED) said "vax" was a relatively rare word in their corpus until this year.

"By September, it was over 72 times more frequent than at the same time last year."

The company added: "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'."

"Vax" was first recorded in English in 1799, while its derivatives vaccinate and vaccination both first appear in 1800.

Oxford Languages says the Word of the Year is based on usage evidence drawn from Oxford's continually updated corpus of more than 14.5 billion words, gathered from news sources across the English-speaking world.