'Podcast' is Word of The Year 2005!!!
Podcast has been declared 2005 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.
The judges noted that only a year ago the term was known only to 'a few techies and self-admitted "geeks"'. Now thousands are available covering just about every subject imaginable.
The word has been defined as 'a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player' and will be added to the online version of dictionary during the next update early next year.
'Podcast was considered for inclusion last year, but we found that not enough people were using it, or were even familiar with the concept. This year it's a completely different story. The word has finally caught up with the rest of the iPod phenomenon,' said Erin McKean, editor in chief of the dictionary.
Runners-up for Word of the Year include: bird flu (an often fatal flu virus of birds, esp. poultry, that is transmissible from them to humans, in whom it may also prove fatal); lifehack (a more efficient or effective way of completing an everyday task); persistent vegetative state (a condition in which a patient recovering from a coma retains reflex responses and may appear wakeful, but has no cognitive functions or other evidence of cerebral cortical activity); reggaeton (a Latin American dance music which combines elements of reggae music with hip-hop and rap); rootkit (software installed on a computer by someone other than the owner, intended to conceal other programs or processes, files or system data); squick (cause immediate and thorough revulsion); sudoku (a logic-based puzzle consisting of squares that form grids within a grid. Into each smaller grid, the numerals 1 through 9 are entered but not repeated, and they may not be repeated in any row or column of the larger grid) and trans fat (fat containing trans-fatty acids, considered unhealthier than other dietary fats).
Three new acronyms also made the shortlist: ICE (an entry stored in one's cellular phone that provides emergency contact information); IDP (internally displaced person; someone forced to relocate within a country because of a natural disaster or civil unrest); and IED (improvised explosive device, such as a car bomb).
Our Take:What can we tell you?! Most of the people reading our Blog have know for some time that the world of Podcasting is taking over the Internet; so it should be little suprise to most that the word has become official.
It certainly is nice to be recognized though :)
With so many variations on the term Podcast (like Playboys new BodCasts) cropping up everyday, Apple has left its indelible mark on the industry with this one (as if the iPod and it's progeny haven't already done that.)
Michael Valiant.
