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You are not reading a blog…

March 23, 2005

… because the word simply doesn’t exist!  At least according to this letter to the editor in today’s Chicago Tribune:

Lately I keep seeing the words “blog” and “blogger” popping up in newsprint.  Who started it anyway?  I looked in my Roget’s Thesaurus and my dictionary – they’re not in there anywhere…

I know our English language is supposed to be dynamic to a degree, like incorporating the word “ain’t” into our diction, but to drop a new word on us out of the blue is a little like dropping propaganda leaflets over London in World War II.  What are they and who needs them?

When I see the word “blog” appear, I can feel a seismological shudder and that shudder I know is my 8th grade teacher, Miss Riddle, turning over in her grave.

Do the writers think they’re being cute, innovative or clever?  They ain’t being none of these in my opinion.  They are committing etymological infidelity.

Bruce M., Roscoe, IL

Miss Riddle turns over in her grave every time someone uses the word, “blog?”  Well then she might rise up and mount a zombie English-teacher attack on the Chicago Tribune if they keep it up!  And she might not be alone.  Aaaugh!  Zombie English Teachers!

(That would be a pretty good movie.  Bruce Campbell would play the editor with his staff of writers and reporters, fending off the attack of the Grammatically-Correct Undead.)

I love the part where he compares new words to propaganda leaflets. That’s good stuff, there.  No New Words!

Actually, I don’t like the word “blog” simply because it has an unpleasant sound.  I much prefer weblog, which would have a logical etymological place next to email.  (You miss hyphens?  Then you can put in the extra keystroke.)  But it hardly makes enough difference to be worth even writing a whole weblog entry about.  Oh, wait…

Categories: Blogging, Geeky
  1. March 24, 2005 at 03:47 | #1

    actually, the words “blog,’’ “blogger,’’ and “weblog’’ are already listed on the online oxford english dictionary (OED).

  2. March 24, 2005 at 08:37 | #2

    The dictionary exists to record the language of people like me. If I say ‘blog,’ then blog is a word. Unless I’ve eaten too much rich food; then ‘blog’ is a phenomenon.

  3. March 24, 2005 at 09:00 | #3

    Of all neologisms to object to, “blog” is relatively benign, if you ask me.

  4. March 24, 2005 at 11:35 | #4

    I am thinking that the person writing the original letter in the paper newspaper does not have any idea about navigating the Internet, ordering from online shopping sites, bidding on e-bay auctions, or the fun and interesting ideas circulating through weblogs. 
    An online dictionary is up-to-date and quite reliable compared to a book edition printed 12 years ago.
    Like I have told my mother, resistance is futile.  If she wants to read what I write, she will have to go to the public library computer or a cybercafe, get an e-mail account, and read my weblog.  I got tired of printing out 17 pages a week and putting a stamp on the envelope.

  5. March 24, 2005 at 11:42 | #5

    There is an OED. I didn’t know that.  But I do think, though I use Blog, that weblog is a better word to explain what we do—What do we do?——

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