MERRIAM-WEBSTER has chosen “vaccine” as the word of the year, one that went beyond its medical meaning to encapsulate debates about personal choice, political affiliation and much more, reported Sputnik today.

The American dictionary company said the choice follows the selection of “pandemic” as the word of 2020.

“The promising medical solution to the pandemic that upended our lives last year became a political argument and source of division.

“The biggest science story of our time became the biggest debate in our country, and the word at the centre of both stories is vaccine.”

“Vaccine” was looked up 601% more often than last year, but interest in it has been growing since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak. Lookups jumped 535% in August, as the United States debated vaccine approvals and vaccination rates, and have remained stable throughout late fall.

Merriam-Webster also updated the word’s definition to give it a more nuanced description that now reflects the use of messenger RNA in vaccine production.

The Oxford English Dictionary said it picked “vax” as the word of the year in October.

The word “vaccine” and its derivatives stem from the Latin word for “cow”, vacca, because cowpox was used to immunise people against smallpox. – Bernama, November 29, 2021.