IS BLOG EVEN A WORD?
Being a lover of words, I was just wondering where the word “blog” was initiated, since technically, we don’t have grammatically correct slang words; I would have to analyze the term very carefully before commenting. I would probably surmise that “B” stands for business…and then there is, of course, the obvious “log”. Business Log…hmm, that might make sense. A bit logical I would think. So, being a writer, I decided to research this infamous word, to see how close I came.
Remember how we used to take the romantic sounding words from other countries,like Latin or Greek, and come up with the English version of it? Now, we are a much savvier techie, alluding to the computer generated version of the English language, which actually is acceptable in the era of high-technology. Here are some samples I found in my research:
(Ahem: Disclaimer: Any grammatical errors in these quotes are the sole ownership of the writers who submitted them and not those of yours truly).
“It’s short for Web log, a log (journal) published on the Web. somebody thought it would be cool to start with weblog and take away the we”
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“It is a contraction of “web log”, ie a journal… slur it together, “weblog”, drop it to just ‘blog.”
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“WeB log….weB LOG…the words combined making Blog. It means a place on the web where you can log or keep track, make note of things.”
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“a blog is something like an online diary where everyone is able to see it if they go to your blog..”
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“True, BLOGs came from Web log, however they have evolved into something very different today.”
”Weblogs before were basically pages where owners put in their favorite links and reviewed them. After some time it evolved into an online journal, which is the most common understanding of blogs today. it means WEB LOG”
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“Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. If it is website, it displays in chronological order the postings by one or more individuals and usually has links to comments on specific postings.”
“Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although many focus on photograph (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting)”
Ah! Ha! So, it was not derived from a business standpoint at all, and my analysis was incorrect! Well, not totally. Let’s just say I was half right and leave it at that…so, maybe for business we could say, B2BBlog! There you have it, a new term! Be sure to let me know what YOUR B2BBlog is about! Oh yes, if you don’t know what B2B means, why not make it your Google word for the day!
January 27th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Great history on the term blog Mary Beth!
Good luck on your new site and your new blog!
Anita Bruton
Professional Freelance Writer
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:35 am
Interesting post, I do believe at the very start weblogs were actually records of the ip adresses that had actually visited the website so it would appeared they had gone through major transformations for them to ge to where they are today.