Words of the year

From the American Dialect Society, insurrection : “insurrection — a term for a violent attempt to take control of the government – is the one [word] that many felt best encapsulates the threat to democracy experienced that day [January 6]. The lasting effects of that insurrection will be felt for years to come.”

From the Australian National Dictionary Centre, strollout : “the slow implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination program in Australia.”

From the Cambridge Dictionary, perseverance: “In 2021, people all over the world have had to show perseverance in the face of challenges and disruption to our lives from COVID-19 and other problems.”

From the Collins Dictionary , NFT : “the unique digital identifier that records ownership of a digital asset.”

From Dictionary.com, allyship : “a powerful prism through which to view the defining events and experiences of 2021 — and, crucially, how the public processed them.”

From The Economist , vaccines : “Derived from the Latin vacca for cow, and named after an early example used to treat cowpox, vaccines finally bent the curve of the covid pandemic.”

From Merriam-Webster, vaccine : “Few words can express so much about one moment in time.”

From Oxford Languages, vax : “A relatively rare word in our corpus until this year, by September it was over 72 times more frequent than at the same time last year.”

I’ll add to this post as more words arrive.

[As yet there’s no Merriam-Webster or OED entry for vax. I’m grateful to Oxford for not even mentioning anti-vaxxer as a vax-related word (the first OED citation is from 2001)].