Posted on by John Bollwitt

Say it with authority

It’s official now. Google is in the dictionary, and it’s a verb.

The next time one of your fancy-talkin’ friends tries to correct you for using Google as a verb–as in “Let’s google for pics of Scarlett Johansson”–point out that the hoity-toity Oxford English Dictionary now backs you up.

According to a Motley Fool news story the dictionary added the word during its latest round of updates. Over at the SearchEngineWatch they posted the dictionary’s definition of the word:

intr. To use the Google search engine to find information on the Internet. trans. To search for information about (a person or thing) using the Google search engine. [techweb]

Does this also mean that it’s fair game in Scrabble as well?

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3 Replies to “Say it with authority”

  2. I think there is a rule in Scrabble about using words that are always capitalized like proper nouns. But you could “Google” it and find the official rules plus I’ve seen “Google spelled both with the upper case G and lower case g. You just have to designate a dictionary before you start a game as your final authority if challenged. It’s been so long since we’ve had the board games down and I remember how much fun we all had playing scrabble. I need to introduce the grandkids to the game!

  3. The potential interesting part (for crossover geeky law types like me) is that the Oxford English Dictionary included Google with a capital “G” while the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary included Google with a lower case “g.”
    The potential problem for Google is loss of thier trademark. Once a word enters common parlance it can lose its trademarkability (if I remember correctly when a mark becomes “merely descriptive”). So Google has to be especially careful about the use of google with a lower case “g” as opposed to the use of Google with a capital “G” (as the capital G denotes a specific product and not just a common term). See cellophane, aspirin, and escalator. The LA Times had a great story on it here:
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fi-google7jul07,0,5674422.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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