[ti:Vaccine or Vax for Word of the Year] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]The word “vaccine” can bring out emotions and discussions [00:05.20]in ways it never did before the start of the pandemic. [00:10.08]In some countries, new variants are spreading [00:13.64]as COVID-19 vaccines have yet to arrive. [00:17.72]In others, shots are wasted as citizens [00:21.48]fight against the government’s vaccination requirements. [00:26.16]“Vaccine” has come to represent not just scientific progress [00:30.60]but also political divisions around the world. [00:34.56]That is why two major dictionary publishers [00:37.92]have chosen "vaccine" and "vax" as the 2021 words of the year. [00:45.32]Peter Sokolowski is an editor [00:47.64]with American dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster. [00:51.36]He told The Associated Press [00:54.04]the word “vaccine” represents two stories. [00:58.76]“One is the science story, [01:00.68]which is this remarkable speed [01:02.56]with which the vaccines were developed. [01:04.60]But there’s also the debates regarding policy, [01:08.16]politics and political affiliation. [01:10.64]It’s one word that carries these two huge stories,” he said. [01:16.68]Lookups, or searches, for the word vaccine [01:20.08]increased 1,048 percent on Merriam-Webster’s website [01:24.52]from 2019 to 2021. [01:28.56]Debates over who is able to get the vaccine, [01:31.52]vaccine requirements and additional shots [01:35.08]kept interest high, Sokolowski said. [01:39.08]So did concern about the safety of the vaccines [01:42.68]and vaccine passports. [01:46.40]Although people looked up the word on the internet a lot all year, [01:50.80]searches rose 535 percent in August, Merriam-Webster said. [01:57.56]At that time, there was a lot of news about vaccine requirements [02:01.48]and vaccination rates, the publisher said. [02:05.36]Across the Atlantic Ocean, Britain’s Oxford English Dictionary [02:10.16]named “vax” as its word of the year for 2021. [02:15.56]“Vax” is an informal word [02:17.72]that can mean the noun “vaccine” or the verb “vaccinate.” [02:23.24]Researchers at the Oxford University Press [02:26.80]released a report about how “vaccine” [02:29.80]affected the English language over the past year. [02:34.28]The report said it is rare for a subject [02:37.52]to affect language so much in such a short period of time. [02:44.08]“Vaccine” comes from the Latin word “vacca,” [02:47.44]which means “cow.” [02:49.76]The word was first used to describe inoculation. [02:54.80]That word described a process of using small amounts of cowpox [02:59.64]to prevent small pox, explained Merriam-Webster on its website. [03:05.28]In English, the word “vaccine” started being used in the 1880s. [03:11.64]Some say the word “vax” started to appear in the 1980s. [03:16.08]Oxford researchers found that the word was not used often until this year. [03:22.24]By September, “vax” was being used over 72 times [03:26.92]more often than at the same time last year. [03:31.28]“Vax” is used in informal ways, [03:33.84]in terms such as “vax sites” and “to get vaxxed.” [03:38.88]The word “anti-vaxxer” [03:40.76]refers to a person who is against receiving a vaccine. [03:46.04]Last year, Merriam-Webster chose “pandemic” as the word of the year. [03:50.76]It had the highest number of lookups [03:53.60]on Merriam-Webster’s website in 2020. [03:57.68]The company bases its choice on searches, [04:00.60]paying close attention to large increases. [04:04.48]The company has been naming a word of the year since 2008. [04:10.04]Britain’s Cambridge dictionary chose the word “perseverance” [04:13.96]as the 2021 word of the year. [04:16.80]Perseverance is a continued effort to do something, [04:20.56]even when it is difficult or takes a long time. [04:25.16]The word “perfectly captures [04:27.40]the undaunted will of people across the world [04:30.20]to never give up, despite the many challenges of 2021,” [04:34.80]Cambridge said on its website. [04:38.00]Lookups of the word also greatly increased in February [04:41.96]when NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed on Mars. [04:47.12]Collins Dictionary, however, selected “NFT,” [04:51.00]which has nothing to do with the pandemic, as its word of the year. [04:55.84]“NFT” is a short form for the words: non-fungible token. [05:00.84]The term means a unique electronic identifier [05:05.00]that records ownership of electronic property. [05:08.76]NFTs have grown in popularity in 2021. [05:14.96]I’m Dan Novak. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM