由于新冠病毒的全球威胁仍在持续，各国都在加紧疫苗接种，力图阻止病毒传播。2021年与疫苗相关的词汇更加频繁出现，而“vax”（疫苗，接种疫苗）也被《牛津英语词典》评选为2021年度词汇。

 

Vax has been chosen as the word of the year by lexicographers at the Oxford¹ English Dictionary (OED).

Vax被《牛津英语词典》评为年度词汇。

 

Words related to vaccines³ have spiked⁴ in frequency in 2021 due to Covid, with double-vaxxed, unvaxxed and anti-vaxxer all seeing a surge in use.

由于新冠肺炎疫情，2021年与疫苗相关的词汇更加频繁出现，“接种过两剂疫苗的”、“未接种疫苗的”和“反对疫苗人士”这些词汇的使用频率骤增。

 

OED senior editor Fiona McPherson says vax was an obvious choice as it has made "the most striking impact".

《牛津英语词典》高级编辑菲奥娜·麦克弗森称，“VAX”是最合适的选择，因为这个词的“影响是最大的”。

 

"It goes back at least to the 1980s, but according to our corpus it was rarely used until this year," she said.

她说：“Vax至少可以追溯到20世纪80年代，但根据我们的语料库，直到今年人们才开始大量使用它。”

 

"When you add to that its versatility⁵ in forming other words, it became clear that vax was the standout in the crowd."

“再加上vax还能组成很多词汇，显然它就在众多词汇中脱颖而出了。”

 

Vax and vaxx are both accepted spellings but the form with one x is more common.

Vax和vaxx这两种拼写都可以使用，但vax更常见。

 

Oxford English Dictionary definitions for vax:

《牛津英语词典》对vax的定义：

 

Vax

n. A vaccine² or vaccination⁶

（名词）疫苗

v. Treat (someone) with a vaccine to produce immunity⁷ against a disease; vaccinate⁸

（动词）用疫苗治疗（某人）以产生对疾病的免疫力；接种疫苗

 

Vaxxie

n. A photograph of oneself taking during or immediately before or after a vaccination, especially one against Covid-19, and typically shared on social media; a vaccination selfie

（名词）在接种疫苗期间或接种疫苗前后的自拍照片，尤其是接种新冠苗时，通常在社交媒体上分享的照片；接种疫苗自拍

 

Anti-vax

adj. Opposed to vaccination

（形容词）反对接种疫苗的

 

Anti-vaxxer

n. A person who is opposed to vaccination

（名词）反对接种疫苗的人

 

Double-vaxxed

adj. Having received two doses of a vaccine

（形容词）接种过两剂疫苗的

 

Use of the word pandemic has also increased by more than 57,000% this year.

今年，“pandemic（全球性流行病）”一词的使用也增加了57000%以上。

 

This year's Oxford-winning word, vax, was first recorded in English in 1799, while its derivatives⁹ vaccinate and vaccination both first appear in 1800.

今年的牛津词典年度词汇vax于1799年首次出现在英语中，其衍生词“vaccinate（v.接种疫苗接种）”和“vaccination（n.疫苗接种）”首次出现于1800年。

 

All of these words ultimately come from the Latin word vacca, which means cow. According to the OED, this is due to English physician and scientist Edward Jenner's pioneering work on vaccination against smallpox¹⁰ in the late 1790s and early 1800s.

这些单词都源于拉丁语单词vacca，意思是奶牛。根据《牛津英语词典》，这要归功于英国医生兼科学家爱德华·詹纳在18世纪90年代末和19世纪初在天花疫苗接种方面的开创性工作。

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