And, here's a fun bonus contest. Requires a little work and probably favors people with a little Google-Fu....
I'd like to see if we can find the FIRST use of the word "vape" or "vaping" online in the MEOV (modern era of vaping) (i.e. since 2006).
I suspect it's on ECF, but it's quite possible it was used elsewhere - note: this usage must relate to e-cigs and NOT to any other substance!
@SmokeyJoe . . .
The earliest known usage of vape
E-cigarettes were not commercially available until the 21st century, having been invented in China in 2003, yet the word
vapeactually dates to the early 1980s. Its earliest known use is in an article, “Why do People Smoke” in
New Society in 1983. The author, Rob Stepney, described a hypothetical device being explored at the time:
“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.)”
Thus, it seems that
vaping the word existed before
vaping the phenomenon. Oxford Dictionaries research indicates that while this sense of
vape was in use in the1990s, as evidenced by posts within the UseNet bulletin board system, it wasn’t until around 2009 that it started to appear regularly in mainstream sources. (
VAPE is named Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2014 | OxfordWords blog )
In Addition . . . Posted December 18, 2007
(Guess by Whom
):
Also another resource . . .
Etymology of 'vape':
slang - Etymology of 'vape' - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Last - but surely not the least:
Vape and
vaping aren’t new as abbreviations. The oldest I’ve found is from the early 1950s in the name of the doubly-abbreviated
Vape-Sorber, a device for removing petrol and oil vapour from the air. There’s also the long-established electric
vape mat, which releases insecticide. Some science-fiction writers have used
vape for killing opponents with an advanced weapon that flashes them into smoke, while others (especially those writing
Star Wars spin-offs) have found
vape, helpfully rhyming with
rape, to be a usefully euphemistic epithet. But Oxford Dictionaries say that the first use in the current sense is astonishingly early:
There have also been experiments with a “non-combustible” cigarette, looking much like the real thing, but again delivering a metered dose of nicotine vapour. (The new habit, if it catches on, would be known as “vaping.”)
New Society, 28 Jul. 1983.
So the word existed long before the phenomenon. The evidence suggests that this sense began to appear in online bulletin boards in the 1990s but that it took until the rise of widely available e-cigarettes around 2009 for it to be encountered regularly in mainstream sources:
His study of 40 smokers is trying to determine how e-cigarettes deliver nicotine and whether they suppress withdrawal symptoms. I found “vaping” too, well, plastic to be enjoyable.
Independent on Saturday (South Africa); 16 May 2009. (
World Wide Words: Vape )
BTW: In addition to "My" earlier post ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
I just found this in the same Oxford Dictionary article which I thought was interesting enough to post too: