1954 Podcast is Word of the Year

Nathan Bierma who writes "On language" for Chicago Tribune reports:

"The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have validated the sudden spread of podcasting by naming "podcast" the Word of the Year for 2005.

"Podcast," defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player," will be added to the next edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary.

The word originated as a play on the word "broadcast" using the name of Apple's popular handheld digital music player, the iPod."

He goes on to say that the word "pod" isn't from the Greek, as in "podiatrist," but rather, "The word "pod" began as "cod" in Old English, meaning "the husk or outer covering of any fruit or seed." The 'pod' spelling isn't recorded until 1688, according to the Oxford English Dictionary." No one seems to know why the P replaced the C, but apparently numerous English words meaning swollen or protruding start with the letter P, but let's not go there.