Word of the year - 3rd January 2022

The Oxford English Dictionary has chosen 'vax' as the word of the year. Every 12 months, they pick a different word.

Words about vaccines have increased in 2021 because of Covid-19. Other related words are 'double-vaxxed' and 'unvaxxed'. Nowadays, these words are all used much more than before.

'Vax' was chosen because it has had such a big effect. The word was occasionally used in the 1980s too. But the noun was first written down more than 200 years ago, in 1799. The verb 'vaccinate' appeared in 1800.

It's possible to spell the word with one 'x' or two, 'vax' or 'vaxx', but the first way is more usual. The word was also chosen because it's very easy to change. As well as words like 'anti-vaxxer', we also have 'vax-a-thon'.

One word is usually picked by OED per year, but last year there were several. OED said 2021 was very unusual. Their list of words included 'bushfires', 'Black Lives Matter' and 'lockdown'. This last word was also chosen by Collins dictionary in 2020.

The OED looks at language from news sites. They have a bank of 14.5 billion words. They use this bank to understand the effect of daily life on language.