Photo Credit: Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press
Vape.
Which describes the act of smoking an e-cigarette.
I had never once heard the word before yesterday’s announcement. Not once. Supposedly the use of the word doubled just from last year. Even though I didn’t hear it once in 2013 or 2014, but hey I’m not particularly interested in anything pertaining to cigarettes. Maybe that’s why I’m out of the loop on this one.
Last year’s word of the year was ‘selfie.’ Now don’t sit there and act like you don’t take selfies. Liar. At least it was a word that EVERYONE and their momma knew. But oh well. Obviously the people at Oxford Dictionaries know something I don’t.
The other words that were on the shortlist were:
Bae.
Budtender.
Contactless.
Indyref.
Normcore.
Slacktivism.
Again, I’d never even heard of any of these EXCEPT ‘bae.’ Seriously, this is in the same category as selfie. Everyone knows and says this now. Before reading at all about this year’s award I fully expected ‘bae’ to be recognized as the word of the year.
Do you use the word ‘vape’ often? I don’t. Do you recognize the other words on the shortlist?
You can click here for the definitions of all of the shortlisted words.
Johnny Reads 
My husband owns and modifies “e-cigarettes” as a hobby, so the term ‘vape’ is very familiar to me. Also, in my town, three vape shops have opened in the last six months, and I could pretty much throw a rock and hit someone who has tried a vape.
But, I don’t partake. I have zero interest in smoking anything, and a lot of them are so sickly sweet as to make me nauseous.
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I’d probably pick “slacktivism” as my fav because it’s a decent play on words, and it’s critiquing something that’s somewhat worth critiquing. I’ve never heard of “vape” either (and I know people who smoke e-cigs), but most words on that shortlist are worse. The fact that “normcore” is even a thing…-_-
And no, I don’t think I’ve taken a selfie since 2011 😛 I’m not photographed often, and have no interest in photographing myself. To put it even more into perspective, I’ve been with my boyfriend for over four years and we probably only have five pictures of us together. Most pictures of me are terrible, especially ones where the camera is awkwardly tilted ten inches in front of my face, lol.
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Well, majority of these words are totally new to me. English is one language that is constantly changing. I will now check out the meaning of the words. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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I’ve only heard vape because a co-worker uses those vapor cigarettes and he says “I’m going to go vape.” And I think it sounds stupid. I don’t get why he can’t just say smoke. But I’ve never heard anyone else say it. I recognize bae, as my teenage sisters use it. I sort of know what it means?
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