‘google’ (goo-gul) tr. v.
by Arthur
Posted on Friday, July 7th, 2006 at 8:09 pm CET
Just five years after its first known public reference as a verb in a New York Post article, the word “google” earned an entry among the 165,000 terms in the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The definition: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web
Usually it takes 10 to 20 years for words to enter everyday use and to make it into the dictionary, a word has to be more than a momentary craze; it needs staying power. “We need evidence that the word is showing up in publications that people are reading on an everyday basis,” John Morse, president of the Springfield-based dictionary publisher, said. Lexicographers comb through national newspapers, entertainment magazines, trade journals and web sites in search of new words.
Other technical terms added to the dictionary this week were ‘spyware’, ‘ringtone’ and ‘mouse potato’. The latter describes someone who spends too long sitting at the computer.
Just five years after its first known public reference as a verb in a New York Post article, the word “google” earned an entry among the 165,000 terms in the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The definition: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web
Usually it takes 10 to 20 years for words to enter everyday use and to make it into the dictionary, a word has to be more than a momentary craze; it needs staying power. “We need evidence that the word is showing up in publications that people are reading on an everyday basis,” John Morse, president of the Springfield-based dictionary publisher, said. Lexicographers comb through national newspapers, entertainment magazines, trade journals and web sites in search of new words.
Other technical terms added to the dictionary this week were ‘spyware’, ‘ringtone’ and ‘mouse potato’. The latter describes someone who spends too long sitting at the computer.