Have you noticed more and more people using the Briticism "jab" for shot or inoculation lately?
Asked by
janbb (
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March 15th, 2021
It often seems like we Americans are still trying to be trendy by imitating the Brits. I first noticed the use of “jab” for shot from one of our UK members but now I am seeing it all over the media and even by friends.
I am amused by the way we co-opt usage from other countries.
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24 Answers
Easier to say:
jab – 3 letters, one syllable
shot – 4 letters one syllable
inoculation – 11 letters – 4 syllables
vaccine – 7 letters – 2 syllables
People go for the simplest. It’s human nature.
One thing that the inoculators ought to think about is co-marketing with the Star Wars people. They could build small buildings for nurses and doctors, and advertise:
Jabber in the Hut
I haven’t heard that until this post.
I administer a FB group with over 1k people in it and I have yet to see anyone refer to it as a “jab.” I’ll pay more attention now to see if I’ve been missing it.
@jca2 I’ve seen it twice this morning. Once in a FB chat with a friend and once on CNN. And I’d seen it a few times before in news articles.
@janbb: I don’t doubt you. I’m just saying I have yet to see it.
Maybe. I feel like I have seen it in local news recently. “Jab” and “poke” and so on sound vaguely sexual to me, whereas “shot” doesn’t. :P
I see “stabbed” more than “jabbed.”
Way more Americanisms are making their way into British-English.
They annoy everyone over 40, and younger people seem oblivious to them being American linguistic imports.
@zenvelo It is the term commonly used in Britain and I had not been hearing it here. They also say “tablets’ instead of pills.
It doesn’t sound British or new to my American ears. Maybe we’re just hearing about injections A LOT more than any other time in our lives.
@janbb I have always though of a “tablet’ as a subset of pills. A tablet is a round disk like medicine, which is different from pills that are gelatin capsules filled with medecine.
I think of pills as the solid medicines like aspirin, tablets as oblong pills, and capsules as capsules.
Not in this neck of the woods…
Yes, a lot more saying “jab”.
I don’t talk to many people but I do read the Economist. They call it “jab.”
Around here, it’s casually called a shot as in: ” Did you get your shot yet? I got my second one at CVS.”
@LuckyGuy The Economist is the best !
They know their English and deliver it in delightful dollops. e.g. shortly after COVID lockdowns, there was a description of the government response that one bureau and another bureau and an institute and a university “all have their skates on” – ready and hitting the ground running. They also consider “data” a plural noun as it bloody well should be.
Personally I’ve adopted most UK English expressions that are different to American English because on reflection they express a concept more precisely. I think that’s fun, call me crazy!
NY State is promoting “Got the Shot” It’s a catchy phrase.
@dabbler – Governor’s Cuomo’s female targets are saying
“I got personally inoculated by the governor”
an institute and a university “all have their skates on” – ready and hitting the ground running.
Skating, not running.
I’ve heard the term jab for several years, mostly from a few acquaintances who refer to “vaccination injuries” as to why they don’t get themselves or their children vaccinated. None of them are British. To me it just sounds like a negative way to describe a vaccination. As in the term, “That guy took a jab at me! What a jerk!” It makes vaccinations sound like a bad thing to do.
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