SPRINGFIELD, MA — The geeks had a word for it — and now the rest of the world does, too. Techno geek babblers can hold their heads up high today, confident that their once-arcane lingo filled language is just as respectable as that used by their disapproving English teachers and other language authorities. Now words like “ringtone, spyware, google, manga, wave pool, biodiesel, and mouse potato” can smugly take their place in the hallowed halls of proper English grammar, thanks to a move on the part of the Merriam-Webster dictionary.Last Thursday the popular dictionary announced a new batch of since and technology words to be added to its latest and most cutting edge reference release. While language purists likely scream in pain when they hear a noun verbed, as is the case when the Google search engine name is used to describe an actual search, the experts at Merriam-Webster have acknowledged that such words exist and are used frequently enough to have a place in the bible of language, the dictionary.
“Our main aim is to respond to the use of the language that we see,” explains Thomas Pitoniak, associate editor and composition manager for Merriam-Webster, specifically addressing the acceptance of “google” as a valid word. “We consider ourselves very respectful of trademark. That is really a lexicographical judgment based on the evidence that ha been analyzed.”
Although companies may well become excited at the realization that their names have become synonymous with an activity, its downside is that that very popularity weakens the ability to enforce trademark, as Bayer learned in 1921 when it found that its abbreviation, “aspirin,” had become a generic term for acetylsalicylic acid. Band-Aid, Kleenex, Rollerblade, and Xerox have all suffered similar fates.
Currently, Google is cool with the dictionary entry, which specifically states that the term refers to using the Google search engine.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added “Google” as a verb on June 15, but retained the capitalization. It also added a number of other familiar and esoteric terms which Merrian-Webster has not yet deemed worthy of inclusion.
The new words are already online and will appear in the 2006 print edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, scheduled for release this fall. In order to honor the 200th anniversary of Noah Webster’s A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, the publisher is featuring a glossary with special attention to Webster’s original entries, which includes words commonly used in the United States but not elsewhere among English speakers. Among those unique words were aeriform, caloric, decahedron, electrician, galvanism, ignescent, vaccine, and vaporize. For those collecting trivia, the first known example of the word “technology” appeared in 1859.
Newly added words include avian influenza, manga
Other interesting techno words embraced by the OED include adware, chip and PIN, codec, digicam, nanobot, rewriteable, screenable, texting, uninstall, text message, cybrary, pixelate, and hacktivism.
