牛津詞典公佈年度新詞 電子水煙“vape”上榜

The Oxford English Dictionary named "vape" - the word used for drawing on an electronic cigarette instead of a burning stick of tobacco – as its 2014 word of the year.

"You are thirty times more likely to come across the word 'vape' than you were two years ago, and usage has more than doubled in the past year," staff editors said Monday.

The 2013 word of the year was "selfie," describing the decidedly less controversial self-portrait taken with a smart phones.

The rise of e-cigarettes was cited as the reason for the skyrocketing use of the word - along with countless debates over the safety of using it long term.

The word appeared to peak this year in April, when New York City banned vaping indoors and the United Kingdom opened its first vape café, The Vape Lab in Shoreditch, London, according to the Oxford statement.

A 1983 article in New Society described the e-cigarette, which had not been invented, in as-yet hypothetical terms and appeared to be among the earliest references to the word vaping in that context, Oxford editors said.

It wasn't until 2009, however, that the term began to catch on, editors said.

officially added the definition in August. The verb is defined as "to inhale and exhale the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device."

A derivative of vapor or vaporizing, the word can also be a noun describing the action and the device.

The winner beat out a short list of runners up that included bae, a term for a beloved significant other.

The list also included budtender, a person who serves up cannabis in a shop or dispensary, and slacktivism, a combination of slacker and activism that describes supporting causes through low-level activities such a signing online petitions.據外媒報道，日前牛津詞典宣佈電子水煙“vape”爲2014年度新詞。

牛津編輯部於17日表示，“比起兩年前，我們現在使用‘vape’這個詞的頻率顯著增加。2014年它的使用量翻了一番”。

2013年“selfie”以絕對優勢獲選“年度詞彙”，意指“用智能手機自拍”。

電子水煙的流行和對長期吸這種煙是否安全的熱議造成了“vape”一詞使用頻率的突增。

牛津詞典編輯部稱，2014年4月，紐約市宣佈禁止室內吸電子煙，第一家電子水煙咖啡廳Vape Lab在倫敦肖爾迪奇區（Shoreditch）開業，這些將“vape”一詞的使用推向頂峯。

他們還表示，“vaping”一詞的首次使用可追溯到1983年《新社會》（New Society ）上的一篇文章。文中描述了那時還未問世的電子煙。

直到2009年，“vape”這個詞纔開始廣泛流行。

“Vape”於2014年8月正式收入牛津在線詞典。它可以用作動詞，形容抽電子煙時吞雲吐霧，也可以作爲名詞使用，指吸“電子水煙”這一行爲或“電子水煙”這一器具。

其他候選詞還包括“bae”，對親密愛人的暱稱；“budtender”，在商店或藥房出售大麻的店員；及“slacktivism”，“懶人行動主義”，指通過網絡渠道如在線簽名請願書來參與公衆議題，但在實際生活中卻缺少參與。