Is it just me, or does anyone else think the word “blog” is just plain ugly? It sits heavy in the mouth, confuses everyone, and conjures up images of some wasting disease or putrid creature.
It is especially irritating for me, since what I am attempting to achieve with writing on my site is a certain elegance and facility with using words. I love words, love savoring them, love listening to their sounds, and the way subtle nuances cause incremental shifts in your guts or the colors that you perceive. When I read the words of masters who weave miracles out of their literature, like Michael Ondaatje or Tolstoy, Shakespeare or Annie Dillard, Rainier Maria Rilke or Mary Oliver, I am literally left speechless with awe and wonder. Reading their words seems to unfurl some vast sail or constellation. It is a joy.
But “blog”. Ugh… It sits dead in the water. One should remove it before it spreads too far. Perhaps it is already too late.
Any suggestions?
Laughing Knees 
6 replies on “Ugly Word”
you are right. i prefer to say i write in a “web journal” but that it is not much better, is it?
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It is a massively ugly word, one I’ve never liked, and have avoided using when possible. I’m really glad I”m not the only one.
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When I think of the word “Blog”, it conjures up images of accounting ledgers and court transcripts, mere records of numbers and events. I lke to think that what we do is much more than that. I like to think that we are searching for something through our sites, whether it be something from within ourselves, or without. I know that I have learned a bit about myself through this effort, and I have certainly found inspiration from the words and images of others as well.
I agree that we need a better name than Blog, but what shall it be?
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Ah, I think we are already way too late if we would take up the quest to ban the word blog and replace it for a more elegant alternative. Unfortunately! The ugliness hit me too when I started my own web-journal two months ago.
What else? I do use and like the word online-journal. But it is too long for this cyber-world in which things must be short, fast, cool, new, etc. And what about those who also use their site to inform others about facts, websites, world news etc.? I guess they can keep the name webloggers/bloggers.
Online Journal writers are, well, online journal writers.
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Ugly, trollish word. I use “Weblog” most of the time. The “W” softens it a bit so that the word doesn’t sound so heavy.
But Weblog isn’t all that much better.
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As you say, Anne, it is most likely way, way too late to even attempt reformation, but that can’t stop us from coming up with something for ourselves, I guess. Your suggestion, Steve (see his trackback post about the word), of “rippling” stopped me short when I read it. I don’t know what it is, but it *fits*. I kept saying the word over and over again. It has an elegant sound and nuance to it and can be percieved in a lot of different ways. You might have something there, but it could just be me. Would it work for, say, allowing people who see it for the first time, to understand intuitively what it means? I have yet to come up with a word that adequately describes what I want the word to say. I’m going to the mountains for the weekend, so maybe some time disengaged from the computer will let some possibilities bubble up from the depths.
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