Wriging

That's the way I see it as well.

That's crazy talk. Get out of here and take your salacious persiflage with you, dirty man.

The blog's the site, yes. Not the feed. And and a post is an entry.

Funny, but I've actually seen a lot of people do that, say: check out my last blog.

Weird.

I guess they perhaps do it because blog can be a verb and a noun. So "I am going to run" and "I just went for a run" could possibly be used to justify "I am going to blog about this" and "check out my new blog on this".

Of course, they're still completely wrong. I recommend increasing their daily intake of geekery, and within a month, the symptoms should subside.

That depends. The use of a noun as a verb (example: Google) seems to be a defining characteristic of the Internet lexicon these days. For example, to "google" something (small "g") is now synonymous with to "Search" for something, even though "Google" is a noun. To "blog" something has become short for "to write about" something (specifically on a blog), and likewise, saying "my latest blog" is the equivalent of "my latest blog entry".

Yes, I know you don't say "I'm going to newspaper this", unless you're talking about the bottom of a bird cage or something, but again, it's an Internet thing, especially in an era where we're seemingly looking to make the language smaller (with the average English speaker knowing only about 10,000 words, as opposed to 40,000 words just 50 years ago) while the dictionary yet grows (to almost a billion (Edit: Err... million. Sorry 'bout that.) words in the Oxford, if I recall correctly).

/I think I'll write a marklar about this marklar in my marklar. Mind, if I quote any of you marklars?

That last paragraph of yours made no sense until I urbandictionaried it.

But yeah I don't maklar at all! Maklar away.

while the dictionary yet grows (to almost a billion words in the Oxford, if I recall correctly).

I'm afraid that is complete poppycock. A specious claim, at best.

I don't know where you heard that. But I imagine it may have been a recently published news article, perhaps reported similarly to this one?

The "database" in question is the Oxford Corpus. What the writer of that article meant to say, was that the corpus had hit one billion words. The Oxford corpus, like any other corpus, contains many, many duplicated lexemes. To claim that there are one billion different words is no more than sloppy reporting.

(In fact, there's a lot more to say on the topic, and I believe I will author a note on the subject.)

Oh, and by the way, the actual number of headwords in the OED is nearer 300,000. But it's not quite as cut and dry as that. (If it interests you to do so, hang tight for the promised note.)

To "blog" something has become short for "to write about" something (specifically on a blog), and likewise, saying "my latest blog" is the equivalent of "my latest blog entry".

My point is the hierarchical swapping (said this already on Pownce). People actually do say "I read yesterday's newspaper" and "I subscribed to the newspaper" which slightly refutes what I'm saying. Only people don't ALSO say "I'm going to newspaper this". I'm no linguist but there's definitely something fishy about using it all three ways as with "blog". Comes a point where the efficacy of a word is diminished beyond what is functional.

@rich: Actually, the "billion" remark was an accident. I meant to type "million". Been doing a bunch of stuff this morning, so I kinda missed that.

Nice catch though. D'OH!

What you're saying essentially comes down to the use of "blog" as a verb.

It's interesting that no other forms of media have been "verbed" -- no one would ever claim to have newspapered something, or magazined something.

My theory is that "to blog" is the summation of a number of actions: writing, proofreading, image editing (sometimes), uploading a file (sometimes), and pressing submit (you might include the initial research, if applicable, in that too). The execution of these actions occurs in one single, relatively short flow (generally speaking). You draft, you proofread, you publish. If you compare it to the newspapering (look at me verbing it!) process, the "flow" is a much more drawn out process. It takes days.

Perhaps it just doesn't make sense to sum up a process that takes so long, with so many steps (you'd have to include all the reporting, the editing, sub-editing, and so on, if you "verbed" it)?

In short, the act of "blogging" can quite sensibly be referred to as a single action, where as "newspapering" can't.

But that's just my ill-considered off-the-cuff theory. Whaddayareckon?

Gnorb: Understood, sir. Nonetheless, I have I have authored a note on the matter.

@Rich: Read the note. Nice. Again, nice catch. My former editor would have chopped off one of my fingers for that one. (This episode once again solidifies why I make a better writer than editor.)

As for your assertion that no other forms of media have been "verbed" what about "TiVo"? Specifically "I TiVo'd the show" (or more accurately, "I'll just TiVo it") which is akin to say it "I recoded (or will record) the show with my PVR". In the end, it's essentially the same thing: take a noun and make it into a verb. In both cases, the specific word use describes the medium used there in: blogs and PVR's, for example.

Perhaps it just doesn't make sense to sum up a process that takes so long, with so many steps (you'd have to include all the reporting, the editing, sub-editing, and so on, if you "verbed" it)?

Winnar! (Hey, wait...)

Actually, I think this is what it boils down to.

Another thing which should be considered is how much blogging has affected internet-connected society. It's everywhere on the Web, and not just in the form of personal blogs, but as components of other media (example, MySpace), to the point where it has changed the way in which we see information sites. (Anyone notice how blog-like CNN.com is looking these days? Let's not even start on Wired.) The influence of blogging is such that the word has taken a life of its own.

In the Southern US it's very common to call things according to the name of the most prevalent brand (Kleenex and Coke being two examples). This is what's happening here. This need not ALWAYS happen for it to be a trend (I don't say "I'm going to the store for some KFC" when I want to buy chicken, but I might say "I'll pick up some Coke" when I'm really picking up some Pepsi or Sprite). Likewise, certain media words have taken on a life of their own. Whether that's correct or well or good is not a question. That it's happened and that it has become generally understood is what really matters. The fact that it communicates a generally well defined set of ideas just solidifies its validity in the public lexicon.

In short, is it annoying? Dear God, yes. It screeches at me like the howling of a banshee. Is it incorrect? It may have been once, but now... not so sure.

Well, your TiVo example fits my theory. The process of tivo-ing (don't capitalise verbs, remember) something is as simple is picking a programme (or series) and pressing a button. Simple, short, sweet -- why not shorten "record a [recurring] programme I like to watch automatically using this technology" down to "tivo"? Sensible, succinct, meaningful.

I think you may be right about the online influence playing a part in this. The Internet is making everything easier, and I think we're doing as much as we can to make everything as easy as possible. Verbing our nouns is just another part of it. And the fact that this "verbification" is happening primarily with web-related terms gives creedence to that: google, blog, etc.

Then again, we're also xeroxing, fedexing and tivoing stuff too. So perhaps not.

I agree.

A blog or a journal is the thing which holds your posts/entries/articles/stories.

New blog = new site to my brain.

I personally don't mind nouns becoming verbs like that, so long as the speaker is clear what they mean in the context surrounding the verb.

I always hated how Virb called blog posts "blogs." That annoyed me.

YES I 100% agree. I can't stand when someone says "hey I just wrote a new blog check it out."

Steven, totally true, that aggravated me also.