anti-vaxxer

[Ben Zimmer]

Note, too, that "doxing" = 'document tracing'
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing) is very often spelled "doxxing".

I suspect the influence of leetspeak
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet), which includes such terms as
"suxxor" and "roxxor", inspired by "hax(x)or".


On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 1:59 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>
> The term appears to have started as "anti-vaccer", but eventually got
> converted to "anti-vaxxer". The c was changed to x, presumably because
> people didn't know how to pronounce original coinage, but reduplication
> remained.
>
> That's my guess, in any case.
>
> On Apr 13, 2014 10:10 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > The Daily Beast:
> >
> > "LYMErix, a promising vaccine for Lyme disease introduced in the '90s, was
> > taken off the market due to pushback from anti-vaxxers (among other
> > groups)."
> >
> > Why two exes?
> >
> > Maybe because it makes the word look cool, like "Exxon."
> >
> > Note too the subdued pun on "limericks."

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