Death to the term "blogosphere"!

Submitted by Fang-Face on January 2, 2008 - 9:23am

From the A Word A Day newsletter for 02 Jan 2008:

commentariat (kom-uhn-TAR-ee-uht) noun

The group of people who provide opinion and analysis of events in the news.

[Blend of commentator and proletariat. The term was first noticed in a 1993
article in the Washington Post.]

Examples of people who comprise the commentariat: talk show hosts and
their guests, newspaper and magazine columnists, and political bloggers.

So I encourage all LISNewsterz to drop the childish and at-least-slightly-aliterate term blogosphere in favour of the much more intellectual term commentariat.

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Comments

Submitted by Librarycat53 (not verified) on January 2, 2008 - 12:21pm.

I agree that commentariat is a lovely and useful word. However, while "blogosphere" may be childish (what makes it childish?), it is a useful term that is much more specific than commentariat. Why must we give up one to use the other?

Submitted by Fang-Face on January 3, 2008 - 1:40pm.

Because "blogosphere" can be used too easily as a sneer; "Oh, that's just the blaaaaawwwwgosphere." Can't do that with "commentariat".

Save the easily offended: ban everything.

Submitted by Ryan Deschamps (not verified) on January 2, 2008 - 7:58pm.

Commentariat is nice, and blogosphere is not aliterate, alliterate or illiterate.