Podcast is the Word of the Year

Posted on December 8, 2005

Editor and Publisher reports the New Oxford American Dictionary has declared that the term "podcast" is the Word of the Year. The term will be added to the online version of the dictionary during the next update in early 2006.

The word, of course, is derived from a combination of "broadcasting" and the Apple listening device "iPod." Some have said they resent the Apple branding and proposed "audioblogging" or "blogcast" or some such as an alternative, to no avail.
Oxford apparently will define the word as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player." The term was coined, according to the BBC, by journalist Ben Hammersley. Podcast was considered for the honor last year, but didn't gain wide use until this year.

Other words that were considered for the honor this year, but which didn't make the cut were: bird flu, trans fat, sudoku (the puzzle), lifehack, rootkit. What in the world is a rootkit, you may ask? Well, according to the Wikipedia entry for Rootkit:

"A rootkit is a set of software tools frequently used by a third party (usually an intruder) after gaining access to a computer system. These tools are intended to conceal running processes, files or system data, which helps an intruder maintain access to a system without the user's knowledge. Rootkits are known to exist for a variety of operating systems such as Linux, Solaris and versions of Microsoft Windows. A computer with a rootkit on it is called a rooted computer."

What we want to know is why "bird flu" is considered a new term? That's been around forever, it seems.