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'Vaping' added to Oxford English Dictionary
Every year the national treasure that is the Oxford English Dictionary announces its new list of words which reflect changes in our modern culture among other things.
Given that we as a nation are embracing the use of electronic cigarettes in a way no-one could have predicted five years ago, I suppose it was inevitable that the verb most commonly associated with their use "vaping" would be added to this lexicon, and this day has finally arrived.
Editors for the OED site analyse around 150 million English words used online, in newspapers and other oultets, and around once a quarter they decide which new words are now so widely used that they merit a dictionary entry.
"Vape" or "vaping," which describes inhaling smokeless nicotine vapour using e-cigarettes (as if you didn't know) is a term which has now become so widely used that it couldn't be avoided for much longer. Oxford Dictionaries researchers say the usage of both "vape" and "e-cig" has increased about 10 times in the past two years.
"The trend of e-cigarettes has created a sort of vocabulary around it," said Oxford Dictionaries editor Katherine Martin.
I have been campaigning (too passively, I now realise) for some time for the e-cigarette community to come up with a better verb (even though I have recently bitten the bullet and incorporated it into my signature below), something which sounds less like a serious crime and also less ugly, but alas it's too late now.
The word vaping is here to stay and I suppose I should be more happy than sad. After all, it reflects a change in our behaviour which I have wanted to see for so long. A behaviour which says smoking losing its grip on us...
I have been campaigning (too passively, I now realise) for some time for the e-cigarette community to come up with a better verb (even though I have recently bitten the bullet and incorporated it into my signature below), something which sounds less like a serious crime and also less ugly, but alas it's too late now.
The word vaping is here to stay and I suppose I should be more happy than sad. After all, it reflects a change in our behaviour which I have wanted to see for so long. A behaviour which says smoking losing its grip on us...
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