‘Vape’ is word of the year

The word vape has been named the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year 2014 in the U.K., reports The Telegraph.

Language research found that the use of the word vape has more than doubled this year compared to 2013.

Vape was added to the website OxfordDictionaries.com in August 2014 and is currently being considered for inclusion in future editions of the official Oxford English Dictionary.

The word of the year does not need to have been coined in the last year but must have become prominent or notable during that time.

In fact, the word vape dates back to the 1980s. Its earliest known use is in an article titled “Why do people smoke?” in New Society in 1983, in which the author, Rob Stepney, used the word to describe a hypothetical device being explored at the time.

He wrote presciently of “an inhaler or non-combustible cigarette, looking much like the real thing, but…delivering a metered dose of nicotine vapor. (The new habit, if it catches on, would be known as vaping).”

Last year’s word of the year was selfie.