In case your unaware, there was a fact check that was trending on twitter a while ago that looked at merriam websters definition of anti vaxxer. This was the original claim it was also made on twitter a few times.

It struck me as odd because I definitely recalled seeing comparison pictures of definition side by side from merriam webster.

And while the claim that the original definition in 2018 was unchanged and always referred to "opposing mandatory vaccinations" which was very surprising to me. (this does provide a reminder to remember to always put the before and after page or a comparison of some kind when sharing anything spicy as all the original claimants didn't do this)

What I did find though was that there WAS a change. A very subtle change that I missed at first.

This is the original and earliest archive page from Nov 25 2018 which states "a person who opposes vaccination or laws that mandate vaccination "

I'll leave insinuations about the timing and definition of that to others.

This is how it appears today which states "a person who opposes the use of vaccines or regulations mandating vaccination"

See the change?

Laws has been replaced with regulations.

Now according to the saved snapshots the change happened between the 3rd October 2021 and the 5th October 2021 The also changed the wording slightly but this is irrelevant.

Now this was picked up on the 7th October and the article accurately identifies the change, but refers to old, inaccurate social media posts.

This was then followed by another fact check which was factually inaccurate:

Leadstories - "Although phrased differently, the Merriam-Webster definition of "anti-vaxxer" has included a portion discussing opposition to the regulation of vaccines since at least 2018"

"phrased differently" is just another way of saying different wording, which is the claim being checked.

So in summary, yes the definition of anti vaxxer was changed, it was changed around the 6th October 2021. What's interesting is that this was "debunked" ahead of time. Snopes addressed this on the 13th may 2021

As far as I can tell this was done in response to a few people on facebook erroneously claiming that the definition had changed, in reality it was always like this since 2018, no body noticed.

However 5 months later they did go ahead and change the definition.

I hope this was easy to follow, and a reminder to get evidence of what things you see because I remember seeing these original claims and never bothered to get a side by side comparison.

If I have time later on I'll edit all these headlines into a combined meme that tells the story.