BLOG

[Dr. Goodword]

• blog •

Pronunciation: blahg • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: An open journal or diary kept on a Web page kept by a single person focusing on a particular topic or theme.

Notes: You may verbalize this word at will and a person who blogs is a blogger. If you are a member of the blog community, you live in Blogistan or up in the Blogosphere. The randomly curious as well as blognoscenti themselves can find a preliminary glossary by clicking here.

In Play: The World Wide Web has become an encyclopedia of the world by the world; even Wikipedia is superfluous. With the blog, the door is open for it to become an encyclopedia of the world's opinions written by the minds holding those opinions: "My friend, the biologist Brooke Trout, writes a bog frog blog about the habits of amphibians in the swamp behind her house."

Word History: Today's good word is a weird clipping of the term weblog "a journal posted on the Web" that first appeared in 1999. As you can see in the Notes above, the word has already spawned a lexicon of its own. You aren't likely to find the word in a dictionary just yet, but you soon will; it was Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year in 2004. Click here for a directory of those currently known to exist and ways to start your own. (We would like to thank Good Word subscribers Paul Ogden and Eleanora Konwaler, among others, for insisting that we run this word.)

[Slava]

I do not like this word. I do not like it in a box, I do not like it with a fox. I do not like it, Sam I am.

It's not only an ugly word, but blogging itself is far over-used, in my not-so-humble opinion. I'll stick with old fashioned journalism and Op-Ed pieces, thank you. Then again, I am a bit of a throw-back at times.

[saparris]

I do not like this word. I do not like it in a box, I do not like it with a fox. I do not like it, Sam I am.

But you will find it in a box (the kind that's used for Firefox). And sometimes (just for pure decorum), a blog is called "discussion forum." But, then, it's really not a blog, because there's more than just one hog.

[LukeJavan8]

I like the word blog.
It sort of sounds like German or Russian.

[saparris]

Sounds like schlep or slog to me.

[LukeJavan8]

I like words that make use of all their consonants.
That, of course, makes French difficult.

[saparris]

Better stay away from English and German, too.

Spanish does a good job of accounting for its consonants and vowels.

[Slava]

And stay away from anything on this site as well,
it can be hazardous to one's opinion.