"Blog" as a transitive verb: improper usage?

Question

The subject line says it all. Well, not really it doesn't include the part about how annoyed I am with this phenomenon, which has been popping up online with increasing frequency.
Examples:
"Yesterday I blogged the Kerry primary results."
"Tomorrow I will be blogging the nanotechnology conference live from Stanford."
"Joe Smith blogged me yesterday, and I'm so grateful for the attention!"
I can accept "blog" as a noun. It's a nifty word that serves a legitimate purpose. I can even accept "blog" as an intransitive verb ("Golly, I just spent my whole afternoon blogging").

But as a transitive verb with a direct object? There's something about "blogging the nanotechnology conference" that just doesn't ring right. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's there. Maybe it's the misuse of the transitive sense, which entails a subject doing something TO a direct object. And because "blogging the conference" doesn't actually do anything TO the conference, it seems an improper usage.
Blog all you want ABOUT the conference. Blog all you want ABOUT the voting results. Be grateful that Joe Smith blogged ABOUT you yesterday. But please don't BLOG anything. It's just not right.

Thoughts and threats are welcome.
CMc

Usenet · Accepted Answer

(Email Removed) (ldw) wrote on 02 Mar 2004:
[nq:1]The subject line says it all. Well, not really it doesn't include the part about how annoyed I am ... Joe Smith blogged ABOUT you yesterday. But please don't BLOG anything. It's just not right. Thoughts and threats are welcome.[/nq]
Spend 20 minutes inhaling as quickly as you can while concomitantly emptying your mind of all activity save the involuntary cerebral farts your apoptotic neurons cannot help emitting. Repeat "Om" as often as possible. If this doesn't help, take two buffered aspirin and blog everything in your next post.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.

Usenet · Answer

In our last episode,
(Email Removed), the lovely and talented ldw broadcast on alt.usage.english:
[nq:1]I can accept "blog" as a noun. It's a nifty word that serves a legitimate purpose. I can even accept ... voting results. Be grateful that Joe Smith blogged ABOUT you yesterday. But please don't BLOG anything. It's just not right.[/nq]
Blog is much too young a word for anything about it to be set in stone. But as it is derived from "log" and log has long been used as a transitive verb, I don't find much merit in your complaint. Logging the temperature does not actually do anything to the temperature (quantum physics aside), so why not "blogging the conference"?

Lars Eighner ~~finger for geek code~~ (Email Removed) http://www.io.com/~eighner/ Nothing endures but change. Heraclitus

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The subject line says it all. Well, not really it doesn't include the part about how annoyed I am ... voting results. Be grateful that Joe Smith blogged ABOUT you yesterday. But please don't BLOG anything. It's just not right.[/nq]
Trying to nip something in bud, eh? Good luck.
[nq:1]Thoughts and threats are welcome.[/nq]
Drawing from your examples, would you agree that the word means "to post the information at one's blog site"?
Wouldn't that make it more like "display" or any number of other verbs that can take a direct object without altering them in any meaningful way?
I saw the results.
I found the results.
I displayed the results.
I posted the results.
I announced the results.
I considered the results.
I recorded the results.
(I blogged the results - ?)

Curious Donna Richoux

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]But as a transitive verb with a direct object? There's something about "blogging the nanotechnology conference" that just doesn't ring ... a direct object. And because "blogging the conference" doesn't actually do anything TO the conference, it seems an improper usage.[/nq]
What's your take on "diarise"?

Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]But as a transitive verb with a direct object? There's ... do anything TO the conference, it seems an improper usage.[/nq]
[nq:1]What's your take on "diarise"?[/nq]
It looks like an abbreviated (one dot?) form of diaeresis.

Seriously, and even though I'm not the poster you were addressing, "blogging the conference" doesn't sound right to me, either. Nor would I use "diarise" ("diarize" here in the U.S., I imagine, if it's used here at all). I personally haven't yet used the verbed form of "diary," if that is what you mean, and probably won't.
But I can see that I might end up verbing "blog" in the fashion quoted. It's a new term, a web-related term (web log) and a term more likely than some others to find favor among the masses, which includes yours truly.
Now that I have the time, becoming a blogger has its appeal. But it seems to require more and more informed opinions than I have. There are many people in aue, though, who could do the job admirably, I think.

Maria Conlon
Please send any email to the Hot Mail address.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]What's your take on "diarise"?[/nq]
[nq:1]It looks like an abbreviated (one dot?) form of diaeresis. Seriously, and even though I'm not the poster you were ... all). I personally haven't yet used the verbed form of "diary," if that is what you mean, and probably won't.[/nq]
Lots of people do, though. It means to make an entry in one's (appointment) diary.
[nq:1]But I can see that I might end up verbing "blog" in the fashion quoted. It's a new term, a web-related term (web log) and a term more likely than some others to find favor among the masses, which includes yours truly.[/nq]
"Blog" is an abeciation for "weg blog", and I've seen "log" used transitively to mean to make an entry about something in a log book.
[nq:1]Now that I have the time, becoming a blogger has its appeal. But it seems to require more and more informed opinions than I have. There are many people in aue, though, who could do the job admirably, I think.[/nq]
Check http://www.livejournal.com/
if you ever decide to do so.

Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Seriously, and even though I'm not the poster you were ... "diary," if that is what you mean, and probably won't.[/nq]
[nq:1]Lots of people do, though. It means to make an entry in one's (appointment) diary.[/nq]
Ah, that would explain it. Here in the U.S., we don't have appointment diaries. We have schedules, calendars, or date books. A diary is where pre-adolescent girls write about how dreamy Todd is and how mean Suzy is.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Ah, that would explain it. Here in the U.S., we don't have appointment diaries. We have schedules, calendars, or date books.[/nq]
Don't forget day planners and PDAs.
[nq:1]A diary is where pre-adolescent girls write about how dreamy Todd is and how mean Suzy is.[/nq]
If you wish to inflict a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him to keep a journal a year.

-=Eric

Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare. Blair Houghton.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The subject line says it all. Well, not really it doesn't include the part about how annoyed I am with this phenomenon, which has been popping up online with increasing frequency.[/nq]
The T-shirt says you're wrong:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/oreilly/tshirts/5eb7/

Pierre

Pierre Jelenc > New on Home Office Records: Ethan Lipton

"Blog" as a transitive verb: improper usage?

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