This week another innocent word was commandeered and made to serve a new master and a new meaning. The vocabulary of our world is being stolen and redefined. Words are re-purposed right before our eyes!
Google announced the launch of a new Social Tool and it is named “Buzz,” Google Buzz to be more precise. The Internet is now buzzing (the way the word use to be used) about Buzz. This re-purposing of innocent words isn't new. Here are some others…
Tweet – use to be a sound a bird made.
CD – once referred to a bank note, Certificate of Deposit
Web – was once something a spider wove
Net – was a web of rope used to catch fish
Wave – use to refer to something you rode with a surf board, then a thing the spectators did at games, and now is something that belongs to Google – in beta.
Flicker – was the way a flame moved
Picasso – was a painter you studied in art class
Mouse – was a small rodent
Windows – were part of a house
Friend – was someone you liked and spent actual time with from school, work, the house next door
Caffeine - formally linked to beverages is now another - you guessed it - Google Product
What is a writer to do? What’s next - Microsoft ‘Prose’ or Google ‘Poetry?’