Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Blog on Blog

Today the Blog talks about “blog”, well, the word “blog” that is. Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster has announced that the 2004 word of year is “blog”. The “word of the year” distinction goes to the word that is most often looked up on the Merriam-Webster website. Since July “blog” has consistently been among the top fifty words people search on the dictionary's website. According to Merriam-Webster spokesperson Arthur Bicknell “blog” is looked up tens of thousands of times per month. It wasn't even close. "Blog" topped other old standards like “incumbent” (second place) and “electoral” (third place)by a wide margin. But...no need for registry aficionado’s to look up “blog”. We know it is “a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies”…and let’s add “interact with the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds”. But there’s more…congratulations are in order. The word “blog” will be added to the 2005 edition of the Collegiate Dictionary. When is Microsoft going to catch on? Spell Check underlines in red every time I use the word “blog”(there it goes again). Don’t look up “blog” in your Thesaurus, you won’t find anything. What's the favorite word of Merriam-Webster website visitors?… Right…”defenestration”. What does it mean?… Don’t bother looking it up. You can find out right here in the registry…”blog”.
Defenestration- The act of throwing someone or something out of a window (I thought that was called murder). What's next?...Who knows… maybe teenagers wearing T-Shirts with “BLOG ON MAN” across them.

No comments: