Vax is short for vaccine and can also be spelled “vaxx.” It’s not a new word and was first recorded in English in 1799. It’s derivative words, “vaccinate” and “vaccination” appeared in the year 1800.
Collins Dictionary defines vax as: “short for vaccine: a substance put into a person’s body to prevent them getting a disease.”
Lexicographers at Oxford English Dictionary chose “vax” as Word of the Year for 2021. A BBC News article writing about this said: “Words related to vaccines have spiked in frequency in 2021 due to Covid, with double-vaxxed, unvaxxed and anti-vaxxer all seeing a surge in use. OED senior editor Fiona McPherson says vax was an obvious choice as it has made ‘the most striking impact’. ‘It goes back at least to the 1980s, but according to our corpus it 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.“
The word appears frequently in news articles. A cursory search of the news using Google found an article entitled: “Dozens of NYC educators placed on leave for alleged fake vax cards” that was published on April 21, 2022 in the New York Times.
“Blue Bombers drop vax mandate, but are they dropping the ball?” is the title of an article that appears in the Winnipeg Sun for April 25, 2022.
Social Media Trends as of April 26, 2022
Facebook #vax: 19,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #vax: 103,561 posts
TikTok #vax: 328.5 million views
YouTube #vax: 1,600 videos; 672 channels
Google Trends: I set the analytical search tool to the beginning of 2004 for vax. It peaked in popularity during the month of October 2021.
Sources
Bamberger, Cayla. “Dozens of NYC educators placed on leave for alleged fake vax cards.” The New York Times. April 21, 2022. URL: https://nypost.com/2022/04/21/nyc-eddozens-of-nyc-educators-placed-on-leave-for-alleged-fake-vax-cardsucators-placed-on-leave-for-alleged-fake-vax-.cards/.
Friesen, Paul. “Blue Bombers drop vax mandate, but are they dropping the ball?” Winnipeg Sun. April 25, 2022. URL: https://winnipegsun.com/sports/football/blue-bombers-drop-vax-mandate-but-are-they-dropping-the-ball.
urbanbuzz. “VAX Oxford English Dictionary word of the year.” Shutterstock.com. Standard License. Royalty-free stock vector ID: 2067447635.
“Vax.” Cambridge Dictionary. May 11, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Maskhole.
“Vax declared Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year.” BBC News. 1 November 2021. URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-59089596.