By: Jim Veihdeffer

Jim Veihdeffer — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:18:20 +0000

Although I applaud the development of gadgets that may (or may not) make our electronic lives easier, I have to put a naysay to the use of the term ‘widget.’ I suppose this is a losing battle by now, but why has this perfectly good term, meaning “an unnamed or hypothetical manufactured article” been co-opted when there’s a perfectly good term, ‘gadget’ already in place for what it really does?
Actually, we probably need a neologism for this new concept…perhaps ‘e-gadge’ or ‘webgadge’?
Call me a fuddy duddy (if you dare) but writers and word lovers must lament every time a useful distinction — such as the difference between ‘disinterested’ (having no stake in the outcome) and ‘uninterested.’ (not giving a rat’s patoot about the outcome)– goes by the wayside thanks to the uncaring and barbaric
whim of the tin-eared ignorantia.

Comments on: Who needs a widget? You do!

By: Jim Veihdeffer