I say weblog, you say ...
To celebrate his first anniversary of "Notes from the Copy Editor," Dan Holbrook reminds us that "blog" comes from "weblog," not "Web log." (More from Jason Kottke's 2003 post that he links to.)
I've been guilty of that in the days when AP enforced a style on it. Of course, now it's not even in the AP stylebook anymore -- a reminder of how quickly things change. "Blog" isn't even in AP anymore either -- basically it's a nonissue. And to think that just four years ago there was all this hootin' and hollerin' about whether them blog things was even legit. ...
Labels: blogging, copy editing, spelling, style-AP, usage
posted by Doug @ 2:15 PM
2 comments|
2 Comments:
Even if they could get the etymology right, I'd prefer to see more publications follow the AP's lead and accept that blog no longer needs an explanation. In the past few weeks the Statesman Journal, Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, Daily Pilot, Times-Standard, Palestine Herald Press, and Sacramento Bee have all helpfully told readers that "Blog is short for Web log." Maybe I'm just too wired-in to understand, but it seems about three years too late to be writing in such a wide-eyed way about blogs.
Yeah. I think that falls under the heading of unnecessarily clubbing the reader, sort of like repeating that "fax is short for facsimile machine" every time you use it.
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