This is not a “blog” - in fact, none of them are.
The Internet has been responsible for a number of good things - and a number of things best not mentioned… Probably the greatest crime that it has committed though has been the utter bastardisation of the English language.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines “log” as:
log ¹ - n.
- a part of the trunk or a large branch of a tree that has fallen or been cut off.
- (also logbook) an official record of events during the voyage of a shop or an aircraft.
- an apparatus for determining the speed of a ship, originally one consisting of a float attached to a knotted line.
v. (logged, logging)
- enter in a log > achieve (a certain distance, speed or time).
- (log in/on or off/out) go through the procedures to begin (or conclude) use of a computer system.
- cut down (an area of forest) to exploit the wood commercially.
- DERIVATIVES logger n. logging n.
The word “blog” apparently has its origins in the words “web log” or “weblog”. Calling either “blog” or “weblog” a word grates on me a little, but let us assume for the purposes of this exercise that a word is defined as a jumbled up mash of letters that forms a somewhat pronounceable utterance.
As such, let us presume that:
- a “blog” is a log that has been placed on the web.
- a “blogger” is someone who places that log on the web.
- “blogging” is the act or placing these logs on the web.
As yet, despite my searching, I am yet to find any site that claims to be a “blog” that falls within the correct definitions of a log that is on the web.
None of these supposed web logs contain are:
- official records of events during the voyage of a shop or an aircraft.
- parts of the trunk or large branches of a tree.
- apparatus for determining the speed of a ship.
As is would be, both technologically and by definition - impossible for a web site to be the latter two, they can be discounted as being plausible origins for the word “blog”.
This leaves the former.
I conducted a small experiment.
Of the 399 results that I found on Technorati when searching for the words “ships log” (with quotes), there were probably a handful that actually contained information about events on board a ship and most of these had but a tenuous grasp on any claim to being a true log.
A log is not a journal.
A log is not a list of stuff you like doing.
A log is not randomly scrawled broken English with “words” like “u’r, txt, luv, m8″
A log is not your thoughts on what is happening in the world at large.
A log is none of these things, therefore nor is a “blog”. Curse the clown who coined the term and curse The Internet (and Americans) for systematically destroying the English language.
Technorati Tags: English, language, blog, weblog, log, grammar, Internet, Americans, bastardisation, Technorati, boat, ship, aircraft, Samuel Johnson
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