anti-vaxxer

[Joel S. Berson]

Perhaps to indicate that the "a" is short?  Although I am unable to
say "vayx-er" easily.  (I do prefer the supposition of a parallel
with "vaccine".  "Vaccer" would be "vakker".)

Joel

At 4/14/2014 04:54 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>Maybe "anti-vaxer" would look like they opposed vacuuming or something.
>
>Also, "XX" looks twice as dangerous.
>
>And most people spell "vacuum" with two c's anyway, or did when I was
>teaching.
>
>
>JL
>
>
>On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 2:27 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: anti-vaxxer
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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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> >
>
>
>
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>
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