Vape Named Word of The Year By Oxford Dictionary November 19 2014
Have you been seeing everyone puff water vapor at bars this year? You're not alone. e-cigarettes and marijuana have become so popular that "vape" was just named word of the year.
The Oxford Dictionaries name its top word every year, and they're usually pretty good at predicting what has staying power. Last year, they picked "selfie" as their top term, and that's certainly stuck around.
They define vape as "to inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device," but note that vape can refer to an e-cigarette as well as the act of smoking it.
The word has exploded in popularity in 2014, thanks to a booming market in e-cigarettes. But marijuana vaporizers also make up a huge chunk of the vaping trend. Marijuana legalization was a huge news story this year and is even responsible for the term budtender, a runner-up word of the year for 2014.
That, combined with tobacco, makes those little devices inescapable. "You are thirty times more likely to come across the word vape than you were two years ago, and usage has more than doubled in the past year," Oxford noted in a blog post.
Oxford also named several runner-up words. Here's hoping that because "bae" didn't make it to Word of the Year status, it'll go away sometime soon:
Bae n. used as a term of endearment for one's romantic partner.
Budtender n. a person whose job is to serve customers in a cannabis dispensary or shop.
Contactless adj. relating to or involving technologies that allow a smart card, mobile phone, etc. to contact wirelessly to an electronic reader, typically in order to make a payment.
Indyref, n. an abbreviation of 'independence referendum', in reference to the referendum on Scottish independence, held in Scotland on 18 September 2014, in which voters were asked to answer yes or no to the question 'Should Scotland be an independent country?'
Normcore n. a trend in which ordinary, unfashionable clothing is worn as a deliberate fashion statement.
Slacktivism, n., informal actions performed via the Internet in support of a political or social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement, e.g. signing an online petition or joining a campaign group on a social media website; a blend of slacker and activism.