2005 Word of the Year: Podcast

It’s time once again for the word of the year, this time brought to you by the New Oxford American Dictionary. As you may recall, last year’s top word, according to Merriam-Webster, was blog. Now we have Podcast, a technology popularized by blogs. Oh, that rapidly encroaching blogosphere.

The NOA Dictionary’s definition of podcast is “a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.” But the definition seems a little weak to me, because a podcast has a very particular delivery mechanism which uses RSS to automatically download new audio content at regular intervals as it becomes available. Not that most people care. Anyway, Wikipedia has a much better explanation of the term.

Here are a few of the other top words this year:

  • IED: improvised explosive device, such as a car bomb
  • rootkit: software installed on a computer by someone other than the owner, intended to conceal other programs or processes, files or system data
  • 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
  • lifehack: a more efficient or effective way of completing an everyday task

Read the full story in Yahoo! Financial News: ‘Podcast’ Is the Word of the Year.

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2 Responses to 2005 Word of the Year: Podcast

  1. Sarah G says:

    Umm, it’s actually “sudoku”. And definitely addicting. It’s almost the only game I play on my Palm these days.

  2. Karl says:

    Oops! My mistake. Thanks for the correction, Sarah. I made the fix in the entry. I haven’t played the game myself, but a couple co-workers are also addicted to it.

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