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Comment by rationalist | Hacker News Reader

> outside of the UK

> I don't know why

My guess is because it has a negative connotation (the pre-2020 definition of jabbing someone was to hit someone, not inject someone).

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In the UK, I believe jab has long been equivalent to shot in the US (complete with nonviolent connotation despite the word meaning something violent in other contexts).

Maybe, but it's a bit weird to complain about connotations for "jab" when the US word is "shot" which surely has even more violent connotations,

A shot of tequila? Or my team having a shot at winning world series? There are lots of shots.

Don't brits use the same way, i.e. "Take a jab at it"?

- not a brit so idk

Interestingly Greene’s Dictionary of Slang cites more than a century of US use of “jab” for injection. Seems like it must have died out in the US and revived a bit lately.

https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/i66n7hi

Not sure about that, you may be thinking of "take a stab at it".

> UK during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2021, when public health campaigns urged people to "get the jab."

Asked and answered, ty.

The term was popularized the US during the pandemic as well. It seemed like it was used by conservative media in the US to try to further politicize vaccination as something being inflicted on them.

I got the covid vaccine (Pfizer) and I still get other vaccines, but it was 100% "inflicted" on everyone (especially with the Federal government requiring civil servants to get it). To believe otherwise is to succumb to the politicalization of it (from everyone other than the conservative media). The rush job was sketchy, which is why I went with the established brand when I volunteered with CERT at our vaccination POD to distribute vaccines to the public.

Edit: and the politicalization of it continues... sigh

> Asked and answered, ty.

Yes, the person I responded to asked, and yes, I was the only person who answered. You're welcome?

> Yes, the person I responded to asked, and yes, I was the only person who answered. You're welcome?

I don't think you understand what's happening. I accepted that I lacked the proper context. You want to keep arguing about related details.

> Edit: and the politicalization of it continues... sigh

You felt the need to politicize it by intentionally phrasing that it was "inflicted" to get an optional vaccination because there were consequence to opting out. This is not adding to the discussion, so here you are. Hope this helps.

Yep, often accompanied by an idiotic fake distinction between "jab/shot" and "vaccine", like "it's not a vaccine, it's a shot!"

True: There are shots which aren't vaccines, and vaccines which aren't shots.

False: "The COVID 'vaccine' isn't actually a vaccine! It's a jab!"

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