Word Up

Hey journalists, listen up.

'Vape', 'Binge-Watch' Added to Oxford Dictionaries

Editors for the site track and analyze some 150 million English words used online, in newspapers and other sources, and once every few months they decide which new words are so widely used that they merit a dictionary entry. 

"These are words that are common enough that you are likely to encounter them, and may have to look up their meanings," said Oxford Dictionaries editor Katherine Martin. 

One of these is "vape" or "vaping," which describes inhaling smokeless nicotine vapor using e-cigarettes. Oxford Dictionaries researchers say the usage of both "vape" and "e-cig" has increased about 10 times in the past two years. 

"The trend of e-cigarettes has created a sort of vocabulary around it," Martin said.

So, boys and girls in the media, let's have no more of you displaying your utter ignorance with talk of "smoking e-cigarettes" (example from gullible hack here), eh?

There's a word for it and it's now in the OED. Look it up and use it. OK?