While most consumers assume the term “vaping” emerged alongside modern e-cigarettes in the early 2000s, lexicographers trace its origin back to 1979. Brenda Coffee coined the word to describe the “Favor” smokeless nicotine inhaler, a non-combustible device developed by her husband, J. Phillip Ray, and Dr. Norman Jacobson.
- 1979 Coinage: Brenda Coffee invented the terms “vape” and “vaping” during clinical development of the Favor nicotine inhaler.
- 1983 Print Prediction: British science writer Rob Stepney explicitly predicted that future non-combustible nicotine devices would be called “vaping.”
- 2007 Forum Pivot: Early consumer communities on E-Cigarette Forum deliberately chose “vaping” over “e-smoking” to avoid tobacco-related stigma.
- 2014 Linguistic Milestone: Oxford Dictionaries crowned “vape” its Word of the Year after usage surged thirtyfold.
Walk into any specialized store or online community today, and terms like vape, vaping, and vaper are standard vocabulary. Most consumers and industry observers assume this language began around 2003, when Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik created the modern electronic cigarette. However, lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) have documented that the root of “vaping” predates modern lithium-ion hardware by more than four decades.
The term originated through an engineer’s search for smoke-free nicotine, a clinical trial in Texas, a British magazine prediction, and an online forum debate that settled the terminology for good.
The 1979 Genesis: Brenda Coffee and the Favor Inhaler
The linguistic history begins in the late 1970s with J. Phillip Ray, an engineer who managed projects for the Apollo space program and contributed to early microprocessor design. Ray was a heavy smoker seeking a method to obtain pure nicotine without inhaling carcinogenic combustion byproducts from burning tobacco.
Collaborating with his physician, Dr. Norman L. Jacobson, Ray developed a plastic, cigarette-shaped tube containing porous paper soaked in liquid nicotine. Because liquid nicotine evaporates at room temperature, users could inhale nicotine vapor simply by drawing air through the mouthpiece, requiring no heating elements, batteries, or combustion.
When deciding how to describe this smoke-free process, Ray’s wife, Brenda Coffee, coined the words “vape” and “vaping.”
In November 1979, Dr. Jacobson presented clinical research on the device at the American College of Chest Physicians meeting in Houston, marking the first formal scientific use of the terms. By 1980, the trade publication Medical World News covered Jacobson’s findings, providing the earliest documented print evidence for the noun vaping recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary.
Ray and Jacobson brought their invention to the commercial market in the mid-1980s under the brand name Favor, marketed with the slogan “Do yourself a favour.” The product struggled with stability: the liquid nicotine evaporated too quickly and oxidized into bitter cotinine. In 1987, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a regulatory warning classifying Favor as an unapproved new drug delivery system, removing it from retail shelves and sending the word back into obscurity.
Rob Stepney’s 1983 Print Prediction
Four years after Coffee coined the word, another reference surfaced in the UK cultural magazine New Society. In an August 1983 article titled “Why do People Smoke?“, science writer Rob Stepney explored nicotine addiction and tobacco harm reduction.
Stepney outlined what a non-combustible alternative might look like and made an accurate linguistic forecast:
“…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.)”
Linguists classify Stepney’s article as a rare instance of a term appearing in print to define a theoretical product decades before that product achieved widespread commercial success.
The 1990s: Aromatherapy and Herbal Subcultures
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the words vape and vaporizer remained in use within specialized botanical and aromatherapy subcultures.
In 1993, herbal activist Eagle Bill Amato introduced flame-powered glass vaporizing pipes in Amsterdam, popularizing the device known as the “Shake and Vape.” Concurrently, discussions across Usenet groups began using “vape” as everyday shorthand for heating botanical materials below combustion temperatures.
2007–2008: Why Online Communities Rejected “E-Smoking”
When modern electronic cigarettes entered Western markets in the mid-2000s, distributors initially marketed the devices as “e-cigarettes” and referred to the act as “e-smoking.”
Early adopters pushed back against this terminology. On December 18, 2007, an administrator on E-Cigarette Forum (ECF) started a discussion thread asking what the practice should be called:
“‘E-smoking’ is a bit of a handful, ‘Misting’ sounds far too fey, ‘Vaporizing’ or ‘Vaping’ has drug connotations. There must be a better word for my new hobby!”
Despite early concerns regarding herbal associations, community members adopted vaping and vaper for two strategic reasons:
- Legal and Policy Distinctions: With smoke-free indoor air regulations expanding across North America and Europe in the late 2000s, describing the activity as “vaping” rather than “smoking” helped users clarify that their devices emitted an aerosol rather than second-hand tobacco smoke.
- Social Separation: Adopting “vaping” helped users separate themselves from the social stigma, odor, and tar associated with combustible cigarettes.
By late 2008, “vaping” had replaced “e-smoking” across digital forums, industry publications, and hardware manufacturing brands.
2014: Oxford Dictionaries Selects “Vape” as Word of the Year
As the market expanded from early cigalikes into variable-wattage box mods and refillable pod systems, use of the term increased exponentially. In November 2014, Oxford Dictionaries selected “Vape” as its Word of the Year, noting that usage had doubled year-over-year and increased thirtyfold compared to 2012.
| Year | Key Figure / Event | Linguistic Development |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Brenda Coffee & Dr. Norman Jacobson | “Vape” and “vaping” coined to describe the Favor non-combustible nicotine inhaler. |
| 1983 | Rob Stepney (New Society) | Published the first direct prediction of the term “vaping” for future smoke-free inhalers. |
| 1993 | Eagle Bill Amato & Usenet users | “Vape” kept active as shorthand within early aromatherapy and botanical subcultures. |
| 2007–2008 | E-Cigarette Forum (ECF) community | Consumers deliberately abandoned “e-smoking” in favor of “vaping” and “vaper.” |
| 2014 | Oxford English Dictionary | “Vape” officially named Word of the Year following exponential global usage growth. |
The linguistic adoption of “vape” also prompted the creation of related industry terms, including vape shop, vape mod, and e-liquid. It also caused linguists to establish retronyms – such as combustible cigarette and traditional tobacco – to differentiate burning tobacco from electronic aerosol devices.
