Move over selfie - no, not the ill-fated ABC show, but the word itself. Oxford Dictionaries has a new word of the year and it is “vape.”
“Vape” was only added to the Oxford Dictionary in August and it is defined as a verb meaning, “to inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device.” The noun form has also been added.
In a blog post, editors explained that people are 30 times more likely to come across the word than just two years ago, as e-cigarette sales have boomed over the past year.
Usage of the word reached a new high in April, when a “vape cafe” was opened in London. There were also protests in New York City, where indoor vaping was banned last year.
While e-cigarettes were first made available commercially in the early 1980s and the term originated in a 1983 article, it wasn’t until 2009 that “vape” and “vaping” became common terms.
Other words considered for Word of the Year were:
bae - “used as a term of endearment for one’s romantic partner.”
budtender - “a person whose job is to serve customers in a cannabis dispensary or shop.”
contactless - “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 - abbreviation of the words “independence” and “referendum,” which was commonly used leading up to the referendum on Scottish independence from the U.K.
normcore - “a trend in which ordinary, unfashionable clothing is worn as a deliberate fashion statement.”
slacktivism - signing online petitions, joining a campaign group, etc. online to show support for a cause, but not doing anything beyond that.
Last year’s Word of the Year was “selfie.”