The fine folks at the Oxford English Dictionary have made their annual decision about a word of the year, and this time around the nod goes to “podcast.” From the press release:
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Only a year ago, podcasting was an arcane activity, the domain of a few techies and self-admitted “geeks.” Now you can hear everything from NASCAR coverage to NPR’s All Things Considered in downloadable audio files called “podcasts.”
I’m not so proud of the fact that there might actually be people out there listening to NASCAR on their portable audio player, but different, strokes, right? I suppose it’s not all that visually arresting (turn left! turn left! keep turning left!) and might actually lend itself to the audio alone…except for all that engine noise. Kudos to OED for some great runners-up:
• ICE (stands for “in case of emergency;” put such an entry in your cell phone)
• Lifehack (more efficient way of completing an everyday task, like finding a cheap hotel room)
• Bird flu (*groan*)