You know the use of e-cigarettes, and indeed vaping mod devices, has gone mainstream when Oxford Dictionaries, regarded by many as the most authoritative arbiter of the English language, selects ‘vape’ as its word of the year.
According to Oxford Dictionaries, use of the word, defined: “to inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device”, has increased twofold over the course of the last year.
Special software was used to scan over 150 million words of English and identify emerging patterns of usage. The lexicographers were then able to put together a shortlist of words and choose a winner that fulfilled their key criteria that the word should “reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations of that particular year and to have lasting potential as a word of cultural significance”.
Scholars at Oxford Dictionaries are known to exercise extreme caution, checking a new word or phrase’s validity before allowing it even to enter the dictionary, so vape’s selection as their most significant new word of the year speaks volumes about the way in which vaping has taken off in this country, its cultural acceptability and the fact that it is now here to stay.
The term, first coined in the 1980s when companies started to toy with the idea of producing real alternatives to traditional tobacco products, only came into common usage as the e-cigarette industry geared itself up in the latter half of the last decade but over the past two or three years devices like multiCIG and now multiVAPE have really caught the public’s imagination.
As a consequence, Oxford Dictionaries’ recognition of vaping as the most culturally significant word of 2014, just as it was when they selected the term ‘selfie’ last year, gives a great indication of how popular the practice has become and confirms that smokers now have a real choice.
At multiCIG, we have known for a long time the potential of e-cigarettes to change the landscape and we have particular belief in the products we offer. To see Oxford Dictionaries emphatically recognise that potential is very encouraging and serves to strengthen our resolve to bring the public the best quality vaping products on the market.
