Prikspijt – “Vaccine Regret” is Voted Word of the Year for 2021 in the Netherlands

‘Prikspijt’, which translates for ‘regretting getting a vaccination,’ was voted the Word of the Year 2021 in the Netherlands after a social media campaign by famous Dutch dictionary-maker, Van Dale.

From December 7 to December 20, 2021, Dutch can vote for the fifteen nominated words for the Word of the Year 2021. The fifteen nominated words were: booster shot, delta variant, breakthrough infection, influencer, sensitivity reader, cave syndrome, intimacy vacuum, meme share, pandemic, prick polarization, sorry, QR society, vaccination booster, wappie sound, and housing protest.

The word ‘prikspijt’ acquired 40,278 votes (82.2%) of the 49,000 votes cast on the Van Dale website.

Prikspijt was chosen from amongst 15 words in the Dikke Van Dale Dictionary with a score of 82.2%.

The two biggest rivals, woonprotest, a word that refers to protests against the Dutch housing market, and wappiegeluid, which is a derogatory term often used to refer to the conspiracy theorists, received 3.7 percent and 3.6 percent of the vote, respectively.

A rough estimate of 49,000 people participated in the voting, which was in 2020, a mere 12,000.

The word is defined as “a feeling of regret someone has about having been vaccinated against any infectious disease.”

Dutch News reported:

Prikspijt, a new word for regretting getting a vaccination, has been voted Dutch word of the year after a social media campaign, reports dictionary-maker Van Dale. The word had 82.2% of almost 49,000 votes cast, followed by woonprotest (protests about the Dutch housing crisis) and wappiegeluid (a derogatory term applied to coronavirus conspiracy theorists). Van Dale defines prikspijt as ‘a feeling of regret someone has about having been vaccinated against any infectious disease,’

Ton den Boon, editor in chief at Dikke van Dale, told NOS Radio 1 Journaal, that the vote was driven by a Twitter campaign, and that it ‘mirrors the polarisation in society around the vaccination and booster shots’.

As of December 18, the Netherlands has 65.9% received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 8.5% got their booster.

The Netherlands reimposes strict lockdown on Sunday due to fear of the Omicron variants. This means more COVID-19 restrictions over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

 

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