Vape has been named the Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year for 2014. It means to "inhale or exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device."

Research has found that use of the word has more than doubled since 2013. It originated as an abbreviation of vapour or vaporise.

Both the device itself and the action can also be known as a vape - the dictionary says - while the noun vaping is also listed.

It says that usage of vape peaked in April 2014, around the time that the first vape café in Britain.

In the same month, the issue of vaping was debated by The Washington Post, the BBC, and The Telegraph.

Some of the other words chosen in previous years | Image: Oxford Dictionary

However the word vaping did exist before the phenomenon as we know it today.

Although e-cigarettes were not commercially available until the 21st century, a 1983 article in New Society entitled 'Why do People Smoke?' contains the first known use of the term.

The author, Rob Stepney, described what was then a hypothetical device: "An inhaler or 'non-combustible' cigarette, looking much like the real thing, but delivering a metered dose of nicotine vapour. (The new habit, if it catches on, would be known as vaping.)"

But despite its early beginnings, research shows that it was not until 2009 that this sense of vape (and vaping) started to appear regularly in mainstream sources.

Other contenders for the top spot included the words bae, budtender and slacktivism amoung others - which are defined below:

• bae n. used as a term of endearment for one’s romantic partner.
• budtender n. a person whose job is to serve customers in a cannabis dispensary or shop.
• contactless adj. 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.
• indyref, n. an abbreviation of ‘independence referendum’, in reference to 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?’
• normcore n. a trend in which ordinary, unfashionable clothing is worn as a deliberate fashion statement.
• slacktivism, n., informal 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; a blend of slacker and activism.