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It's almost the end of the year, and you all know what that means…end of the year awards that mean mostly nothing! Except for E! Online's Best of 2014 tournament, which is special and awesome and you should all look forward to that.
Oxford Dictionaries has picked the word of the year, a word that best represents our growing and changing culture and the ever-shifting English language. That's all long-winded talk for: this word got used a s—t ton this year.
And that word is…
Vape! As in, vape pens, e-cigarettes, etc. "Vape" is a noun that is defined by the online Oxford Dictionary as "an act of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device."
It can also be used as a verb. For example: "He vaped so hard that he disappeared into his basement to watch old episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants for six hours."
"As vaping has gone mainstream, with celebrities from Lindsay Lohan to Barry Manilowgiving it a go, and with growing public debate on the public dangers and the need for regulation, the language usage of the word 'vape' and related terms in 2014 has shown a marked increase," said editorial director Judy Pearsall.
According to the Oxford Dictionaries website, you are 30 times more likely to come across the word "vape" than you were two years ago, and usage has doubled in just the past year.
There were six words that were on the short list for word of the year but lost out to vape:
1. bae, noun: Used as a term of endearment for one's romantic partner.
2. budtender, noun: A person whose job is to serve customers in a cannabis dispensary or shop.
3. contactless, adjective: Relating to or involving technologies that allow a smart card, mobile phone, etc. to contact wirelessly to an electronic reader, typically in order to make a payment.
4. indyref, noun: The referendum on Scottish independence, held in Scotland on 18 September 2014, in which voters were asked to answer yes or no to the question ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?'
5. normcore, noun: A trend in which ordinary, unfashionable clothing is worn as a deliberate fashion statement.
6. slacktivism, noun: Actions performed via the Internet in support of a political or social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement, e.g. signing an online petition or joining a campaign group on a social media website.
Sorry, bae. So close, yet so far away.
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