2008 Woodie Awards
By Ed Baker
Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: Daily Buzz
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I sat up. Looked at her. You want to participate in a "what?"
Her: "A webinar."
Me: "What the hell is a webinar?"
Her: "A seminar on the web."
Me: "That is the stupidest word I've ever heard: webinar. Please don't ever say it around me again."
Me: (storming off to the bedroom and muttering under my breath): "What a stupid word. Webinar."
First a disclaimer: I love my wife, okay? I'm not some a-hole that goes around telling my wife what she can or cannot do. I was joking when I told her not to say the word around me … sort of.
Because, really, "webinar" is a stupid word. In fact, it's not even a word at all. It's a lazy term used by people dying to seem hip and tuned into the latest, greatest thing. Because tell me, honestly, how many tech-savvy 19-year-old's have you heard utter the word "webinar?"
Just keep saying it to yourself and tell me you don't want to go punch something:
Webinar.
Webinar.
Webinar.
I just broke a table lamp.
Webinar.
Webinar.
Webinar.
I just kicked a field mouse. Sorry, furry guy.
Webinar.
Webinar.
Webinar.
I better stop. I just felt the urge to drive my Kia minivan into a wall.
Determined to understand why I felt this unexplained tinge of hatred for a word that has done nothing to me, I went to the home of the webinar - the internet - and searched for fellow haters.
Turns out I'm not alone.
And it turns out that I had a reason to be upset.
Unlike other internet jargon that means something - such as blog (a web log) - webinar doesn't mean anything. It's etymologically incorrect.
The word came to the attention last September of the Winston Review-Journal's language guru Richard Creed
He explained the word seminar derives its heritage from two Latin roots: semin, which means a beginning and arium, which means a place.
Thus, Creed wrote: "Etymologically, (webinar) can mean nothing more than a web place. It could be argued, therefore, that anyone who sets up any kind of web site - historical, equestrian, religious or pornographic, for instance - has set up a webinar … Webinar is a mindless perversion of seminar."
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 6
Tom
posted 3/07/08 @ 3:21 PM MST
Chill dude.
Stan
posted 7/08/08 @ 4:01 PM MST
Kudos! I could not have said it better myself. Now, we need to mount a campaign to remind Merriam-Webster of this fact!
flysi
posted 7/09/08 @ 9:21 AM MST
"Advergaming" has almost the same effect on me.
Oh, and it's Brangelina.
JT
posted 7/21/08 @ 6:10 AM MST
Dude, blog is just as bad, you're just used to it by now. Please, share the hate evenly among stupidity. Blog, webinar, edutainment and anything like it must die. (Continued…)
I Heart Phoenix
posted 8/29/08 @ 2:07 PM MST
Whoa, someobdy call the language police.
Eric
posted 10/07/08 @ 7:23 AM MST
So it's not etymologically correct; who cares? I'm not ball and chained to my grandma's methodology.
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