Word “vaccine“was designated Monday word of the year 2021 by the famous American online dictionary Merriam-Webster, to have gone from the main remedy for the Covid-19 pandemic to a”political argument and a source of division“.
“Few words can express so much over a period of time“, justifies the dictionary in a press release.
The word vaccine has meant much more than medicine in 2021
“The word vaccine has meant much more than medicine in 2021. For many, it has symbolized a possible return to pre-pandemic life. But it has also been at the center of debates on personal choice, political affiliation, professional regulations, school safety, inequality in health, and many others.“, adds Merriam-Webster.
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“The use of a vaccine that triggers an immune response in a whole new way forced Merriam-Webster to revise and expand his definition of the word“in May, says the dictionary.
Online searches for the word “vaccine“increased by 601% between 2020 and 2021, and by 1.048% between 2019 and 2021.
Word “vaccine“is derived from the Latin vacca (cow) and comes from the”vaccine“, or cowpox, which was used to develop the vaccine against smallpox in humans.
“Insurrection”, “perseverance” or even “woke”
Other top-searched words in 2021 include “insurrection“to qualify the violence of January 6 in the US Congress, the name of the NASA robot”perseverance“which landed on Mars in February, and the term”woke“developed by the American left to denote awareness of injustices.
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