Latinizing the Word "Blog"

[Diaphanus]

I was inspired to write about this after rereading the New Latin blog... thread.

There are several latinizations for this, including blogis and blogum.

As I mentioned in the aforementioned thread, I have been using the phrase ephemeris interretialis, or "internet journal." Since tela is used for "web" in the phrase Tela Totius Terrae, ephemeris telaris could work as a translation for "weblog."

One author prefers the latinization blogis, and rejects the forms blogum and blogus because they "sound like ‘bubblegum’ and ‘bogus’." However, in that case, I would mention that blogis sounds like "yogis." Other than that, I do not have a problem with it.

The parisyllabic i-stem blogis was created by adding the stem vowel i to blog (from an imaginary root BLOG), and then adding the ending -s to the resultant stem blogi-. This word is declined like ignis (with ablative singular in -e or -i).

blog, blogis would not do very well because of the unusual -g at the end. The way I see it, if you are going to latinize a non-Latin word, it would be better to use a form that adheres to a regular paradigm rather than use unnecessarily a form that is irregular, especially when there is not an analogous irregular form. In this case, I'd rather add -s to blog to get blox, and decline it like vox.

I take issue with the author's suggestion of the verb forms blogeo, blogere, blogevi, blogetus because 1) i-stems like blogis rarely (if ever) denominate to second-conjugation verbs, and 2) there are only five simple verbs (with their compounds) in regular use that keep the stem vowel e in their principle parts (-evi, -etus), whereas most other verbs of that conjugation follow the paradigm of moneo, monere, monui, monitus. The easiest way to denominate a parisyllabic i-stem like blogis is make it a fourth-conjugation verb: blogis, stem blogi- to blogire, stem blogi-. This is like ignire, sitire, finire from the parisyllabic i-stems ignis, sitis, finis.

Various derivatives can be made from blogire:

blogiens -entis: blogging
blogitus -a -um: (having been) blogged
blogitus -us m./blogitura -ae f.: a blogging; something blogged
blogor -oris m./bloges -is f.: blogging
blogitio -onis f.: a blogging, "blogation"
blogitiuncula -ae f.: a slight "blogation"
blogimen -inis n.: something used to blog, a client like Semagic
blogitor -oris m./blogo -onis m./blogitrix -icis f.: a blogger
blogitorium -ii n./blogitrum -i n. a machine that does automatic blogging
blogax -acis: "blogacious," tending to blog often
comblogium -ii n. (cf. col-leg-ium): blogroll
blogulus -a -um: blogging readily
blogibilis -e: bloggable, "blogible"

[scrabulista]

It is derived from the Greek word logos so I have a preference for blogus.

dialogus = dialogue
prologus = prologue
epilogus = epilogue
also logus, -i and logos,-i. = "word, mere word, joke, jest, etc."

We also have
ecloga = eclogue (making bloga a possibility)

[Diaphanus]

Are we sure it derives from the Greek word? The OED and the other dictionaries I've looked in don't indicate the Greek word as an etymon.

If it does in fact derive from the Greek word, then blogus makes sense. In that case, it could easily denominate to blogare, and the derivatives I mentioned above have the vowel a instead of i (e.g. blogans instead of blogiens).

[Interficio]

WHat about Blog being sort of a like vlog - video logging.

Maybe: Biased Logging?

[scrabulista]

I've always heard it's a contracted form of "web log." -- what etymology does the OED give, or doesn't it list blog yet?

[Diaphanus]

I've always heard it's a contracted form of "web log." -- what etymology does the OED give, or doesn't it list blog yet?

From the OED:

"blog, n.
[Shortened < WEBLOG n.
1999 TBTF for 1999-08-30: Aibo Rampant in cistron.lists (Usenet newsgroup) 30 Aug., Blog., a Web log... First spotted on the Eatonweb blog, er, Web log on 1999-08-25, though Eatonweb's proprietor Brigitte says the coinage is due to our very own TBTF Irregular Peter Merholz.]"

"weblog, n.
[< WEB n. + LOG n.1 Cf. later BLOG n.]

1. A file storing a detailed record of requests handled (and sometimes also errors generated) by a web server."

"log, n.1
[Late ME. logge; of obscure origin; cf. the nearly synonymous CLOG n., which appears about the same time.
Not from ON. lág felled tree (f. OTeut. *l{aecirc}g-, ablaut-variant of *leg- LIE v.1), which could only have given *low in mod.Eng. The conjecture that the word is an adoption from a later stage of Scandinavian (mod.Norw. laag, Sw. dial. låga), due to the Norwegian timber-trade, is not without plausibility, but is open to strong objection on phonological grounds. It is most likely that clog and logge arose as attempts to express the notion of something massive by a word of appropriate sound. Cf. Du. log clumsy, heavy, dull; see also LUG n. and v. In sense 6 the word has passed from Eng. into many other langs.: F. loch, Ger., Da. log, Sw. logg.]"

[scrabulista]

Wow, I would have guessed it was from logos...

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/55579.html

This one is not conclusive but does not offer logos as a possibility either...

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=log

[Diaphanus]

I think it would be much easier if it were from the Greek word.

What do you all think of the form blogis? Any other suggestions?

[indignus]

Avete amici! (':hi:')

To Diaphanus, thanks for the link, and for the excellent analysis in the first post: blogire est! I'll amend my blog post accordingly.

To Scrabblehack, I submit that the demerit of 'blogus' (as well as 'blogum', in fact) is primarily pragmatic; for I agree with one writer (whose link I'll try to retrieve) who said that the 'g' sound is "unnatural", and I think it would likely collapse into 'k' or 'j' in usage. On the plus side, though, it would seem to dovetail with the phonetic pattern of hard consonants that's generally believed to exist in Late Republican (Palatine) Latin...

Deus vobiscum

[Diaphanus]

To Diaphanus, thanks for the link, and for the excellent analysis in the first post: blogire est! I'll amend my blog post accordingly.

Excellent! Thank you!

Feel free to mention of the derivatives I mentioned.

My favorite is comblogium.

To Scrabblehack, I submit that the demerit of 'blogus' (as well as 'blogum', in fact) is primarily pragmatic; for I agree with one writer (whose link I'll try to retrieve) who said that the 'g' sound is "unnatural", and I think it would likely collapse into 'k' or 'j' in usage.

I said "Blogis -is m. (cf. ignis) sounds better to me because it avoids the unnatural final -g" in the New Latin blog... thread.

I didn't realize until now that there are actually two ways to interpret what I said. You read it as the "g" sound as in "George" (and how it would likely collapse into 'k' or 'j' in usage). but originally I had in mind the idea that the letter "g," as a final letter of a word, is not natural in the Latin language (it would likely take an ending like "s" to get blox).

[indignus]

For Diaphanus:

The post is now revised; though my own favorite derivative is blogitiuncula

Re the 'g' sound, my apologies, I rather misremembered what you had written; though please note that I meant to criticize 'blogus' for having 'g' as in 'goat' and being thence phonetically unstable.

I quite agree with your point, BTW; I myself don't remember a 'g' ending in Latin, even in place names, though that may be more a function of my limited vocabulary than anything else (':agree2:') Deus vobiscum

Indignus

VIVET*LINGVA*ROMANA
VIVAT*LINGVA*LATINA

[Diaphanus]

The blogitiuncula is pretty amusing, eh? You made a blogitiuncula to your post!

I have another one: imaginiblogus -a -um "image-blogging" from imago and blogire (cf. laetificus, lucipetus, lucifugus, omnivorus, et cetera).