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Being named the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year is a sure sign that a word has reached a critical mass, where its ubiquity within our culture is so widespread it can no longer go unmentioned. This year, that word is “vape.”
The announcement on the Oxford Dictionary blog said they arrived at their decision after finding “a gap emerged in the lexicon” to properly distinguish the activity of vaping from smoking.
Oxford Dictionary first added the word in August of this year, and defines vape in the verb form as to “Inhale and exhale the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device.” As a noun, it’s defined as “An electronic cigarette or similar device.” The origin of the term goes back to a 1983 article in New Society referencing a then-experimental form of “non-combustible” cigarettes.
The definition’s wording focuses predominantly on the proliferation of electronic cigarettes or “e-cigs,” which simulate smoking by vaporizing a liquid form of nicotine. Of course, vaping is far from limited to just e-cig smokers, as dozens if not hundreds of vaporizer devices for smoking cannabis and cannabis concentrates have flooded the market in recent years. For Oxford Dictionary’s purposes, the use of the word in a marijuana context is implied only, ostensibly tucked away in the “or similar device” distinction of the definition.
According to the blog, you are thirty times more likely to come across the term today than even two years ago, and its usage has doubled in the last year alone. The term reached a peak in April of this year when the UK opened its first-ever “vape cafe” and protests were held in New York City against a newly enacted indoor vaping ban.
Vape isn’t the only marijuana-related word added to the Oxford Dictionary this year. ‘Budtender’ was also runner-up for Word of the Year (n. a person whose job is to serve customers in a cannabis dispensary or shop.)
From the Oxford Dictionary’s press release:
“The use and sale of cannabis is illegal under US federal law, but in the late 1990s various states began to legalize medical use of the drug, and in 2012 Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational use, joined in November 2014 by Alaska and Oregon. These changes in the law have led to changes in the lexicon; one new word that has arisen in US English is budtender, from bud (slang for marijuana) + tender (as in bartender). While not yet a familiar term in the general vocabulary of English, it is a widely recognized designation within the legal cannabis industry.”
Other recent Words of the Year include “selfie,” “gif” and “unfriend.”
The announcement on the Oxford Dictionary blog said they arrived at their decision after finding “a gap emerged in the lexicon” to properly distinguish the activity of vaping from smoking.
Oxford Dictionary first added the word in August of this year, and defines vape in the verb form as to “Inhale and exhale the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device.” As a noun, it’s defined as “An electronic cigarette or similar device.” The origin of the term goes back to a 1983 article in New Society referencing a then-experimental form of “non-combustible” cigarettes.
The definition’s wording focuses predominantly on the proliferation of electronic cigarettes or “e-cigs,” which simulate smoking by vaporizing a liquid form of nicotine. Of course, vaping is far from limited to just e-cig smokers, as dozens if not hundreds of vaporizer devices for smoking cannabis and cannabis concentrates have flooded the market in recent years. For Oxford Dictionary’s purposes, the use of the word in a marijuana context is implied only, ostensibly tucked away in the “or similar device” distinction of the definition.
According to the blog, you are thirty times more likely to come across the term today than even two years ago, and its usage has doubled in the last year alone. The term reached a peak in April of this year when the UK opened its first-ever “vape cafe” and protests were held in New York City against a newly enacted indoor vaping ban.
Vape isn’t the only marijuana-related word added to the Oxford Dictionary this year. ‘Budtender’ was also runner-up for Word of the Year (n. a person whose job is to serve customers in a cannabis dispensary or shop.)
From the Oxford Dictionary’s press release:
“The use and sale of cannabis is illegal under US federal law, but in the late 1990s various states began to legalize medical use of the drug, and in 2012 Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational use, joined in November 2014 by Alaska and Oregon. These changes in the law have led to changes in the lexicon; one new word that has arisen in US English is budtender, from bud (slang for marijuana) + tender (as in bartender). While not yet a familiar term in the general vocabulary of English, it is a widely recognized designation within the legal cannabis industry.”
Other recent Words of the Year include “selfie,” “gif” and “unfriend.”
