'website'

Last May I blogged about the usage of the word 'website' to replace the outdated term 'Web site." Tonight I read the Senate version of the heathcare reform bill, called "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" and noticed the Federal government uses 'website'; by my count the awkward term 'Internet web site' appears once (dictionaries list 'Web site' as the proper term), the term 'Internet website' appears 53 times, and (most promising) the word 'website' appears 50 times without 'Internet'. I also looked at USA.gov and it refers to itself like I would - no capitilization, one word; "We want to make your experience at our website productive, informative, and satisfying." and its linking policy refers to other sites using the same terminology; "USA.gov will not link to any website that exhibits hate, bias, or discrimination."

'Internet' on the other hand, still prevails as capitalized. Give it time...

This topic gave me a thought that the use of search engines and word searches will accelerate the compunding of words, such as 'web site' to 'website' due to the enhanced specificity and exclusion of unrelated 'webs' and 'sites'. I'm sure the usage of 'workout' as a verb will easily make its way into dictionaries - if 'google' can be added as a verb formerly known as a (Proper) noun then terms born in the same way can make it to dictionary pages too. Internet users already force this usage and savvy marketers tap into the popular usage rather than waiting for grammaticians to keep up with the pace of language development. This is not akin to my father's fear of an "LOL world" where people "TTYL" instead of using words, it's a difference in the spelling of existing words changing to reflect usage. It's a continual evolution of terminology, such as the emergence of 'downtown' in the mid-19th century.