Vape: Word of the Year

by: Garry Pierrepont (18 November 2014)

Oxford Dictionaries has chosen the word vape as its Word of the Year for 2014. It is the act of inhaling the vapour from an electronic cigarette as reported by The Guardian.

Vape beat off other new words such as slacktivism, bae and indyref.

Slacktivism is political activity, but achieved in a relaxed way from the internet – a bit like armchair football fans, I guess. An example is this year’s craze for the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Bae is a word of endearment, originating from African American English, and indyref is a word referring to the Scottish independence referendum.

As proofreaders, editors and writers, at WriteItClearly.com it is our job to keep up with new words, but these words are only defined in OxfordDictionaries.com, not yet in the printed version.

Last year’s winner was selfie, which we are all now very familiar with so I guess we’ll all know about vaping within a few months.

Chambers went for overshare as its word of the year, and Collins opted for photobomb.

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