Today Merriam-Webster announced its Word of the Year: Vaccine. While this may seem like an obvious selection for 2021, the data from the dictionary’s website tells a complex story.
“Vaccine lookups increased 600%, and the story is about much more than medicine,” says Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s Editor at Large. “It was at the center of debates about personal choice, political affiliation, professional regulations, school safety, healthcare inequity, and so much more. The biggest science event of the year quickly became the biggest political debate in our country, and the word at the center of both stories is vaccine. Few words can express so much about one moment in time.”
Source: M-W.com
The Word of the Year selection is based on lookup volume on Merriam-Webster.com. Although vaccine had a large number of lookups when vaccines were developed and distributed, lookup spikes accompanied debates about mandates and recommendations.
Interest in the word was strong in January with news about vaccines and their efficacy, and in early February when the U.S. reached the milestone of more people vaccinated than infected. The lookups increased dramatically in August, with the introduction of state and federal vaccine mandates. Controversy surrounding President Biden’s September executive order requiring vaccination for federal employees, news about booster recommendations, and authorization of the vaccine for children continued to fuel enormous interest in the word.
Merriam-Webster itself became a small element of the story. In May, as part of the dictionary’s standard revision process, the definition of vaccine was updated to better explain how vaccines work, including the role of mRNA technology, which drove additional lookups.
Other words also stood out in the dictionary’s 2021 data, and they too shed light on the experiences and ideas that shaped the year. Those top lookups include:
Insurrection in January, used to describe the attack on the U.S. Capitol
Perseverance in February, after NASA’s “Perseverance” rover landed on Mars
Infrastructure in April, after President Biden announced his controversial $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal
Nomad in April, with Nomadland winning three Oscars including Best Picture
Cicada in May, as trillions of the insects emerged from underground after 17 years
Cisgender, first in May when the word was used in a CIA recruitment video, and again in October when a student used it in a college op-ed
Murraya in July, after Zaila Avant-garde spelled it correctly to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee
Guardian in July after Cleveland’s baseball team announced that “Guardians” would replace “Indians” as the team name
Meta in October, after Facebook changed its company name
Woke especially in coverage of November’s election, when those on the left were labeled with the word by those on the right
Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.
From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...
Full Text of ALA Statement (6/24): In response to the alarming increase in acts of aggression toward library workers and patrons as reported by press across the country, the American ...
FCC and IMLS Sign Agreement to Promote Broadband Access More Than Fifty Libraries and Library Systems Live on EBSCO FOLIO Library Services Platform NIST Releases New Guidance and Resources on ...
From the Associated Press (via Times of Israel): Pope Francis orders the online publication of 170 volumes of its Jewish files from the recently opened Pope Pius XII archives, the ...
From NYPL: The virtual branch— a custom designed interactive AR (Augmented Reality) Effect accessible via Instagram Reels is the centerpiece of #NYPLSummerBookshelf, a new initiative to spark a love of ...
CLIR Invites Proposals for Pocket Burgundy Series (via Council on Library and Information Resources) Oregon’s State Library added to National Register of Historic Places (via Oregon Capital Chronicle)
From GCN: An address-level, interactive broadband map will help officials in New York explore statewide high-speed internet availability, assess connectivity needs and better allocate state and federal funding. The map ...
The article linked below was recently published by Information Technology and Libraries. Title Rarely Analyzed: The Relationship Between Digital and Physical Rare Books Collections Authors Allison McCormack University of Utah ...
From The Pratt Institute: The Mellon Foundation has awarded the Pratt Institute School of Information $600,000 to support the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network (DPOE-N) in collaboration with the ...
From a DPLA Announcement: DPLA’s ebook work is a key part of our mission to advance digital access to knowledge for all. Earlier this month, The Palace Project app and platform ...
From an AUPresses Announcement: Charles Watkinson, director of the University of Michigan Press, has stepped into the presidency of the Association of University Presses. Watkinson, who also serves as associate ...
From the Report Summary: The United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration asked us to review the handling of sexual harassment cases at the Library. The audit’s objectives were ...
