Ah, and now we get into the semantics issue. To fast forward a bit, the point of communication is to convey ideas. We have rules for language and definitions because otherwise, we wouldn't be able to convey ideas very well. Language evolves. A word might start out with one root, meaning a particular thing, and years later mean something completely different because of how people have taken to using it.
Example: decimate. Here I will be a hypocrite, and say that it does somewhat annoy me when people misuse this term. Its original meaning was to take/destroy a tenth of. But it's come to mean more the reverse of that through common parlance. And in fact the incorrect usage has become so common, that it is now correct.
I feel that the same thing applies here.
Another good point you mention is usage of the device versus terminology. If you hit someone over the head with a gun, you still call it a gun, not a club. But to bastardize the word "webcam" into a verb, I wholeheartedly agree with you that people are not "webcamming" when they are taking pictures or videos and posting them, any more than someone is "shooting" in the above example.
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Date: 2008-10-28 07:31 pm (UTC)Example: decimate. Here I will be a hypocrite, and say that it does somewhat annoy me when people misuse this term. Its original meaning was to take/destroy a tenth of. But it's come to mean more the reverse of that through common parlance. And in fact the incorrect usage has become so common, that it is now correct.
I feel that the same thing applies here.
Another good point you mention is usage of the device versus terminology. If you hit someone over the head with a gun, you still call it a gun, not a club. But to bastardize the word "webcam" into a verb, I wholeheartedly agree with you that people are not "webcamming" when they are taking pictures or videos and posting them, any more than someone is "shooting" in the above example.