‘Vape’ Is Oxford’s Word Of The Year

The Oxford Dictionary is full of all kinds of big words like 'inosculate', which means 'join by intertwining or fitting closely together', and now, it's home to 'vape', this year's word of the year.

Last year's word of the year was 'selfie', and the year before that it was 'gif'. The guys at Oxford Dictionary took a look at words like 'budtender', 'slacktivist', and 'bae' as possibilities for word of the year for 2014. 'Vape', or 'the act of inhaling and exhaling a smokeless vapor produced by electronic cigarettes' won out because Oxford says the use of the word more than doubled over the course of a year.

In case you're wondering, 'budtender' is someone who works for a medical or recreational pot dispensary, and 'slacktivist' is someone who gets involved with Web activism because it requires a minimal amount of time and dedication. 'Bae' is used by people on the internet who think it means 'baby' or 'babe', but it really means 'poop' in Danish.

Words are fun!

PREVIOUS WORDS OF THE YEAR

2013 - Selfie: A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.

2012 - Gif: A lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images.

2011 - Squeezed Middle: The section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes, and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty, consisting principally of those people on low or middle incomes.”

2010 -  Refudiate: Used loosely to mean ‘reject’.

2009 - Unfriend: Remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking website.

2008 - Hypermiling: The practice of making adjustments to a vehicle or using driving techniques that will maximize the vehicle’s fuel economy.

2007 - Locavore: A person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food.

2006 - Carbon Neutral: Making or resulting in no net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere especially as a result of carbon offsetting.

2005 - Podcast: A digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a portable media player, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.

2004 - Chav:  A young lower class person typified by brash and loutish behavior and the wearing of real or imitation designer clothes.