Podcast, Word of the Year

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have “defined” podcast as the Word of the Year. Runners-up included “bird flu” and “rootkit“. The word will be added to the next online update of the dictionary, in early 2006, and will be defined as “a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.”

Erin McKean, the dictionary’s editor-in-chief, noted that the word was considered for inclusion in the dictionary last year, but ultimately rejected as it was not in wide-enough usage.

“This year it’s a completely different story,” McKean said in a statement. “The word has finally caught up with the rest of the iPod phenomenon.” Source: Macworld

We Say: McKean’s right, as podcasting was known last year, but it’s become the “in-thing” this year. There’s no doubt it deserves an inclusion, but if you hurry you might be able to browse over to Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary and submit it at that other dictionary yourself!