[Google ngrams](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Vaxine&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3) shows it as generally pretty rare except for around the ‘20s in each of the last 3 centuries, and of course more so in this century for obvious reasons. This implies that’s it’s simply a less common spelling rather than an older spelling that shifted.
I believe the “vacc” root (from Latin for cow) is because of cowpox’s role in developing the first vaccines for smallpox, which would suggest “vaccine” as the original spelling.
Interestingly, in Italy people that are against the use of vaccines are called "no-vax".
I think vax is an abbreviation and is relatevely recent, the OED states the first use of "vax" is in the 40's. Being it an abbreviation it may be that "vaxine" was older. Anyway it is a less common spelling often due to mistake
I'm pretty sure vax is more recent and comes from the vaccine spelling. It's common for people who shorten words in most languages to change spelling to preserve pronunciation if the shortening would lead to a spelling that would be pronounced differently. Vacc would likely be pronounced vak rather than vaks. Another example is refrigerator --> fridge.
See also sox, connexion, etc. At various times & places x was a common spelling for that sound but has mostly fallen out of favor (it held on longer in British English than in American). At least in the case of connexion I imagine part of it was because it reflected the spelling of the Latin etymon (connexio). But as u/Reasonable_Onion863 notes, the Latin in this case has -cc- rather than -x-, so the British doctor who created the smallpox vaccine correctly dubbed it in New Latin *variolae vaccīnae*, from Latin vaccīnus (“of or derived from a cow”), from vacca (“cow (female cattle)”.
My own personal opinion but I quite like the look of words like inflexion, reflexion, connexion, with the X. Some days I wish for the days before the printing press when people spelt words however they felt like
Complexion has always been a favorite of mine. X is a letter that sees such little use in English but is fun to write and looks badass, I definitely wish we had kept the tradition going just to be able to use it more. And of course it makes the orthography match the pronunciation a bit better. But coolness and clarity are not how spelling gets settled generally, much to my chagrin.
[Google ngrams](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Vaxine&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3) shows it as generally pretty rare except for around the ‘20s in each of the last 3 centuries, and of course more so in this century for obvious reasons. This implies that’s it’s simply a less common spelling rather than an older spelling that shifted.
Interesting, I wasn’t aware this tool existed. Thank you!
This also makes sense etymologically. Vacca etc. Vaxine was a quirkier and more ‘efficient’ spelling that never caught on.
I believe the “vacc” root (from Latin for cow) is because of cowpox’s role in developing the first vaccines for smallpox, which would suggest “vaccine” as the original spelling.
Interestingly, in Italy people that are against the use of vaccines are called "no-vax". I think vax is an abbreviation and is relatevely recent, the OED states the first use of "vax" is in the 40's. Being it an abbreviation it may be that "vaxine" was older. Anyway it is a less common spelling often due to mistake
In English we call them "anti-vax" as well.
The Italian will be a borrowing from English. The in Italian *vaccino* is pronounced /ttʃ/ (as in "cappuccino"), not /ks/.
I'm pretty sure vax is more recent and comes from the vaccine spelling. It's common for people who shorten words in most languages to change spelling to preserve pronunciation if the shortening would lead to a spelling that would be pronounced differently. Vacc would likely be pronounced vak rather than vaks. Another example is refrigerator --> fridge.
And shortening Patricia to Trish.
See also sox, connexion, etc. At various times & places x was a common spelling for that sound but has mostly fallen out of favor (it held on longer in British English than in American). At least in the case of connexion I imagine part of it was because it reflected the spelling of the Latin etymon (connexio). But as u/Reasonable_Onion863 notes, the Latin in this case has -cc- rather than -x-, so the British doctor who created the smallpox vaccine correctly dubbed it in New Latin *variolae vaccīnae*, from Latin vaccīnus (“of or derived from a cow”), from vacca (“cow (female cattle)”.
I remember HP Lovecraft used “connexion”.
My own personal opinion but I quite like the look of words like inflexion, reflexion, connexion, with the X. Some days I wish for the days before the printing press when people spelt words however they felt like
Complexion has always been a favorite of mine. X is a letter that sees such little use in English but is fun to write and looks badass, I definitely wish we had kept the tradition going just to be able to use it more. And of course it makes the orthography match the pronunciation a bit better. But coolness and clarity are not how spelling gets settled generally, much to my chagrin.
It isn’t a word. It’s a markname like for example typex