Though you may have been "googling" people for years, the verb you were using was technically slang; until recently
Along with defining an intensive computer user as a "mouse potato" (a popular twist on the late 1990’s "couch potato" entry), they have given formal definition to one of the Internet’s most recognizable names. "Google is definitely a verb," said Dan Reynolds, a 35-year-old salesman at YES Computers in Northampton.
Of late, Merriam-Webster announced its latest update, and the new science and technology words added to the venerable dictionary include agritourism, biodiesel, mouse potato, ringtone and spyware, — Making Google Inc.’s eponymous search engine a sanctioned part of the English language, when "google" — with a small "g" — earned an entry among the 165,000 or so terms in the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
In fact, many regularly used tech words are just now getting the official stamp of approval from English-language dictionaries.
Linguists said google entered the lexicon especially quickly. It reached the pages of the dictionary just five years after its first known public reference as a verb in a New York Post article. Usually, it takes 10 to 20 years for words to enter everyday use, if they make it at all.
Google’s speed "is typical for words used on or about the Web," said John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc. "Those are words that establish themselves in the language the quickest because of the power of the Web to propagate words."
And google is defined as a transitive verb meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web." While the entry retains capitalization in explaining the word’s etymology — "Google, trademark for a search engine" — the verb google is lowercase.
A noun turns into a verb very often. Google is a unique case. Because they have achieved so much prominence in the world of search, people have been using the word google as a generic verb now. Our main aim is to respond to the use of the language that we see. We consider ourselves very respectful of trademark. That google as a lowercase verb is really a lexicographical judgment based on the evidence that was analyzed, Thomas Pitoniak, the associate editor and composition manager for Merriam-Webster, told CNET.com.au sister site CNET News.com.
Last month, the Oxford English Dictionary also added the verb “Google” — but with a capital “G” — to its online version.
But be warned: You might come across ‘a drama queen’ — a person given to often excessively emotional performances or reactions, ‘an empty suit’ — an ineffectual executive, or ‘a bimbo’ — an attractive but vacuous man — think "male bimbo".
We try to have a mix that addresses the wide range of people’s information needs when adding new words, said Morse. "It could be a technical term or some light-hearted slang that sends people to a dictionary."
To make it into the dictionary, a word has to be more than a flash-in-the-pan fad. It needs staying power.
We need evidence that the word is showing up in publications that people are reading on an everyday basis, Morse said. Lexicographers comb through national newspapers, entertainment magazines, trade journals and Web sites in search of new words and phrases.
Becoming synonymous with an invention may hold a certain amount of historic glory for a company, but ubiquitous use of the company’s name to describe something can make it harder to enforce a trademark. Bayer lost Aspirin as a US trademark in 1921 after it was determined that the abbreviation for acetylsalicylic acid had become a generic term. The trademarks Band-Aid, Kleenex, Rollerblade and Xerox have had similar issues.
Respectful of the trademark, Merriam-Webster lowercases the entry but maintains the capitalization while explaining that the verb means "to use the Google search engine" to retrieve online information.
Merriam-Webster’s definition of "googling," however, specifically refers to a Google search, not just any search done on the Internet. So far, the company is OK with the new definition.
"We are defining a trademark as a verb, just like we did with the word xerox," Morse said.
The Merriam-Webster editorial team analyses print, radio and television, as well as the Net, as sources for new words and usage.
It is a many-side beast, this electronic media; it also involves the acceleration and spreading of words and meanings. The Internet has been an amazingly useful resource for us and in our work. However, when we look to the Internet, including journalistic sources, there is a whole set of challenges involved. Part of the problem is that you do not know if it is an intentional variation, or someone does not know how to use the word correctly, said Pitoniak.
Google appreciates the problem. In its 2005 annual report to investors, the Mountain View, Calif., company noted that "there is a risk that the word (Google) could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word (search.) If this happens, we could lose protection for our trademark, which could result in other people using the word ‘Google’ to refer to their own products."
The corporate promotional landscape is littered with examples. "Cellophane," "aspirin" and "escalator" were once trademarks, not just product names.
Peter Sealey, a former chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola Co., said that while working for the soft drink giant, he was obliged to avoid using "Coke" as an adjective, even in internal memos (the "Coke media plan," for example, was verboten).
"We had to take elaborate steps to maintain the purity of the trademark," Sealey said.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which released its update June 15, also added Google as a verb, but it retained the capitalization. The OED also included a wide range of both quirky and commonplace tech terms that Merriam-Webster has not yet deemed dictionary worthy.
As has been the case during the past several years, Merriam-Webster’s lexicographers have been largely preoccupied with technology and computers for its latest edition, which will be widely available at the end of the summer.
Along with defining an intensive computer user as a "mouse potato" a popular twist on the late 1990’s "couch potato" entry, they have given formal definition to one of the Internet’s most recognizable names.
At least for now, Google has offered a measured reaction to its inclusion in the dictionary, saying it approved of the word’s use in references to the Google service specifically, not search engines in general.
That is how 100 new words made it into the 11th edition. Among the new entrants: "spyware," defined as "software that is installed in a computer without the user’s knowledge and transmits information about the user’s computer activities over the Internet" and "mouse potato," slang for someone "who spends a great deal of time using a computer."
When the dictionary is published in the fall, "google" will fall between "goofy" and "googly-eyed."
The next entry: "googol," the word from which Google the algorithm-crunching company derived its name — the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Noah Webster’s "A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language," the Merriam-Webster Web site is featuring a glossary highlighting Webster’s original entries. These are words that were commonly used in America but were not yet found in any English language dictionary. Some of Webster’s science and mathematics terms (the earliest known use of the word technology was not until 1859) included: aeriform, caloric, decahedron, electrician, galvanism, ignescent, vaccine and vaporize.
The new words from Merriam-Webster are already available online, and will be included in the 2006 print version of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, due out later this year.