07 Dec 2005
Wordsmiths hail podcast success

And that just amuses some of us audio geeks to no end ... it's purely a marketing ploy. A podcast is an media (usually MP3) file, usually (but not always) served as an attachment in an XML wrapper. And further, Apple put the 'pod' in podcast, as it's naught but a reference to the ubiquitous iPod. So 'podcast' is a play on a commercial term for a type of file that's been around for more than a decade - and now it's the "word of the year".

Hmmm, now that we know the parameters, maybe we should start a meme that has a chance to become the 'Word of the Year' in the next ten years. Let's see - well, 'Windows' is a trademarked commercial term, and it's really singular, not plural. That opens some doors. There are several classes of programs around for Windows that break it - virii and trojans come to mind. So what if we began referring to those as 'brix' - because as real bricks break real windows, virtual bricks break virtual Windows. Get it? The 'x' is there because it's hip to be x, and to make it faux plural! Clever, eh? Word of the Year in 2015, here we come!

I don't know, though. We'd have to maintain the fake plurality. Telling somebody that "I got brixed!" may be OK, because it's unambiguous, but you couldn't say "I got a brick through my Windows." or folks might assume you'd been the target of protesters rather than malware authors.

Hey, wait a second ...'malware' for Word of the Year, 2006!

The term 'podcast' has been declared as Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

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