"Back in my day, it was just weed; it was just getting high," said Joel Schneider, 55, sipping a cup of coffee. "Vaping? No. We'd never heard of vaping."
Mr. Schneider, the owner of a pot-friendly bed-and-breakfast in Denver (it brands itself a "bud-and-breakfast"), had just learned that "vape" was chosen as the Oxford Dictionaries 2014 Word of the Year. That is, a group of lexicographers got together and measured the word's use, determining that the term – used to describe the process of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette (or "vape pen") – had proliferated, along with the habit. (Last year's word of the year was "selfie.")
"The growing popularity of e-cigarettes, combined with the legal cannabis industry, created a perfect storm," said Katherine Martin, a lexicographer involved in the selection.
Yet "vape" is only the tip of the linguistic iceberg, at least when it comes to marijuana. Spend a few days in Colorado, where pot has been legal since January, and you stand to end up tongue-tied more than once. Weed? Nope. It's now "cannabis," a subtler term. "Smoking" has become "consuming," or, if it's with a vaporizer, "vaping." Pot itself is often referred to as "product," and the industry is referred to as the "cannabusiness."
"There is definitely a new vernacular that comes with the dawn of mainstream cannabis," said Andy Juett, a Denver comedian who runs a pot-themed show. "There, I just did it: I wouldn't have even used the word 'cannabis' two years ago."
Call it cannaslang. Linguists say its evolution is not particularly surprising: Drugs have long produced a casual lexicon. There are at least 200 synonyms for the word "drunk," as chronicled as early as 1737 in something called The Drinkers Dictionary.
Yet when it comes to pot, the new terminology goes beyond describing the high (though, indeed, "green out" is the new "black out"). There are now terms for the business (pot entrepreneurs are "ganjapreneurs") and its sociology (bias against stoners is "cannabigotry"). The act of disliking a person who vapes is called "vape vitriol"; "cannasseur" refers to a pot connoisseur.
Some of the words are silly, but others are strategic: a way to give pot some class. "We work very hard to mature the messaging and vernacular of this industry," said David Kochman, a lawyer for OpenVape, a Denver-based company that manufactures vaporizers. He notes that "buds" are now referred to as "flowers," and "trim" (the leftover parts of a marijuana plant once the flowers are removed) is "raw material."
As for vaping, the word itself appears to date back to 1983, according to Oxford, when it was used in a scholarly article to describe "an inhaler or 'noncombustible' cigarette" that looked "much like the real thing" but delivered nicotine through a vapor. It would be a decade before it would catch on, appearing in online forums amid the jargon of marijuana. Yet even a few years ago, if you heard the word, you might have been more likely to think "Star Trek" than e-cigarette, said Axie Blundon, OpenVape's social media director. "You imagined vaporizing somebody into thin air," he said, "like a stun gun."
These days, vape beat out "slacktivism" (lazy activism) and "normcore" (grandpa fashion worn as a statement) – as well as another pot term, "budtender" – for the grand word title.
"I feel like vape is a more refined term," said Chandler Davis, a 24-year-old budtender in Denver. "Here and there, we're making smoking a little classier."
News Moderator: Shandar @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
Author: Jessica Bennett
Contact: Contacts and Services - The New York Times
Website: ‘Vape’ Joins Pot Lingo as Oxford’s Word of the Year (Published 2014)
Mr. Schneider, the owner of a pot-friendly bed-and-breakfast in Denver (it brands itself a "bud-and-breakfast"), had just learned that "vape" was chosen as the Oxford Dictionaries 2014 Word of the Year. That is, a group of lexicographers got together and measured the word's use, determining that the term – used to describe the process of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette (or "vape pen") – had proliferated, along with the habit. (Last year's word of the year was "selfie.")
"The growing popularity of e-cigarettes, combined with the legal cannabis industry, created a perfect storm," said Katherine Martin, a lexicographer involved in the selection.
Yet "vape" is only the tip of the linguistic iceberg, at least when it comes to marijuana. Spend a few days in Colorado, where pot has been legal since January, and you stand to end up tongue-tied more than once. Weed? Nope. It's now "cannabis," a subtler term. "Smoking" has become "consuming," or, if it's with a vaporizer, "vaping." Pot itself is often referred to as "product," and the industry is referred to as the "cannabusiness."
"There is definitely a new vernacular that comes with the dawn of mainstream cannabis," said Andy Juett, a Denver comedian who runs a pot-themed show. "There, I just did it: I wouldn't have even used the word 'cannabis' two years ago."
Call it cannaslang. Linguists say its evolution is not particularly surprising: Drugs have long produced a casual lexicon. There are at least 200 synonyms for the word "drunk," as chronicled as early as 1737 in something called The Drinkers Dictionary.
Yet when it comes to pot, the new terminology goes beyond describing the high (though, indeed, "green out" is the new "black out"). There are now terms for the business (pot entrepreneurs are "ganjapreneurs") and its sociology (bias against stoners is "cannabigotry"). The act of disliking a person who vapes is called "vape vitriol"; "cannasseur" refers to a pot connoisseur.
Some of the words are silly, but others are strategic: a way to give pot some class. "We work very hard to mature the messaging and vernacular of this industry," said David Kochman, a lawyer for OpenVape, a Denver-based company that manufactures vaporizers. He notes that "buds" are now referred to as "flowers," and "trim" (the leftover parts of a marijuana plant once the flowers are removed) is "raw material."
As for vaping, the word itself appears to date back to 1983, according to Oxford, when it was used in a scholarly article to describe "an inhaler or 'noncombustible' cigarette" that looked "much like the real thing" but delivered nicotine through a vapor. It would be a decade before it would catch on, appearing in online forums amid the jargon of marijuana. Yet even a few years ago, if you heard the word, you might have been more likely to think "Star Trek" than e-cigarette, said Axie Blundon, OpenVape's social media director. "You imagined vaporizing somebody into thin air," he said, "like a stun gun."
These days, vape beat out "slacktivism" (lazy activism) and "normcore" (grandpa fashion worn as a statement) – as well as another pot term, "budtender" – for the grand word title.
"I feel like vape is a more refined term," said Chandler Davis, a 24-year-old budtender in Denver. "Here and there, we're making smoking a little classier."
News Moderator: Shandar @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
Author: Jessica Bennett
Contact: Contacts and Services - The New York Times
Website: ‘Vape’ Joins Pot Lingo as Oxford’s Word of the Year (Published 2014)
