Do you kindle?
Do you kindle?
by R.U. Kindling
Since Westerners are sometimes referred to as "people of the book" [ עם הספר "Am HaSefer"] -- meaning, people of the Torah and the Mishnah and the Talmud and the Five Books of Moses and the New Testament and "The Audacity of Hope" -- it makes sense that we Western people like reading books, writing books, buying books and even "kindling" books. Kindling books? Did I just write "kindling" books?
Yes, there's a new word out there in the blogosphere, online and on blogs and websites in most of the English-speaking world, and that new word is a verb -- to kindle, and the ING form kindling -- that has taken on the meaning of "reading on a Kindle e-reader device from Amazon.com.
Don't believe me? Google it. That's another corporate name that was turned into a popular verb. There are others, too: to xerox something, and to facebook someone. Language is a never-ending story. And for the people of the book, language is a multilingual affair, and while "to kindle" has not yet made it into Yiddish or Hebrew, stay tuned. Words have wings, and Emily Dickinson might have said: "Language is that thing with feathers."
The Urban Dictionary in California has been studying "kindle" as a verb, as a takeoff of the corporate name for Amazon's reading device, and the word -- as a verb -- is catching on, from blog posts on the New York Times website to online forums at Treehugger.com and Kunstlercast.com. The way the new verb form was submitted the editors at Urban Dictionary, which is run by a 20-something man who works at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California was like this, according to sources deep within the hidden confines of the evolving blogoteria:
"Kindle: To read a book or a newspaper on a Kindle e-reading device."
Usage examples:
"I'm kindling now, I will call you back in ten minutes."
"I'm kindling the newspaper now, can't chat, will return call in one hour."
"Do you enjoy kindling with your Kindle?"
"Hey, I've been kindled. My latest book was packaged by Kindle as a Kindle book and you can read it on Kindle now. It feels kind of good to be kindled."
"My book was out of print for a long time, but a new publisher reprinted it and put it on the Kindle book list and you could say my book has been rekindled. I love it!"
Kindle as a verb is catching on. Judy Goldberg in Delray Beach, Florida, tells me: "I've owned my Kindle for almost 6 months and love it. When I mention I'm reading a particular book, I refer to it as 'I'm Kindling such and such a book', so it's already a verb to me. It's hard to imagine reading a regular book now."
Liz Hill told me: "I don't 'kindle', but I know we certainly all 'google'. And that verb is
in the dictionary. I often 'skype' or tell people to skype me instead of calling me. So
there's another example. Maybe "kindle" will catch on as a verb, too. Who knows? Who knew?"
And Whitney Leader-Picone told this reporter: "I thought the point of the Kindle was the paper screen technology which made reading a book on a digital device not like a digital device at all. Computer screens start to hurt my eyes over the course of the day, which is why I have been so reluctant to consider ebooks in the past. The Kindle, I have heard, is gentle on the eyes. So wouldn't these differences differentiate "kindling" from reading online?"
And she added: "I don't really mind "to kindle" since the Kindle is so unique, but I am still skeptical about whether we need a new word for reading online. Also, shouldn't we let these new terms grow organically as they have in the past and as "to kindle" and "facebooking" have already?"
Not everyone agrees that kindle will make a good verb.
"I think this is the first time I've encountered 'kindle' as a verb," one blogger on the Internet said last November in a comment thread, almost six months ago. "Clever, but it sort of makes my skin crawl."
So do you kindle? Are you kindling now as we speak? Do you own a Kindle? Will you use kindle as a verb, or does it sort of make your skin crawl, too?
Stay tuned. As one top computer industry reporter at the New York Times told me in a recent email about this new use of the word kindle as a verb to mean "reading a book on a Kindle": "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."
Words are those things with wings. See Jane kindle. Watch Dick kindle.
by R.U. Kindling
Since Westerners are sometimes referred to as "people of the book" [ עם הספר "Am HaSefer"] -- meaning, people of the Torah and the Mishnah and the Talmud and the Five Books of Moses and the New Testament and "The Audacity of Hope" -- it makes sense that we Western people like reading books, writing books, buying books and even "kindling" books. Kindling books? Did I just write "kindling" books?
Yes, there's a new word out there in the blogosphere, online and on blogs and websites in most of the English-speaking world, and that new word is a verb -- to kindle, and the ING form kindling -- that has taken on the meaning of "reading on a Kindle e-reader device from Amazon.com.
Don't believe me? Google it. That's another corporate name that was turned into a popular verb. There are others, too: to xerox something, and to facebook someone. Language is a never-ending story. And for the people of the book, language is a multilingual affair, and while "to kindle" has not yet made it into Yiddish or Hebrew, stay tuned. Words have wings, and Emily Dickinson might have said: "Language is that thing with feathers."
The Urban Dictionary in California has been studying "kindle" as a verb, as a takeoff of the corporate name for Amazon's reading device, and the word -- as a verb -- is catching on, from blog posts on the New York Times website to online forums at Treehugger.com and Kunstlercast.com. The way the new verb form was submitted the editors at Urban Dictionary, which is run by a 20-something man who works at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California was like this, according to sources deep within the hidden confines of the evolving blogoteria:
"Kindle: To read a book or a newspaper on a Kindle e-reading device."
Usage examples:
"I'm kindling now, I will call you back in ten minutes."
"I'm kindling the newspaper now, can't chat, will return call in one hour."
"Do you enjoy kindling with your Kindle?"
"Hey, I've been kindled. My latest book was packaged by Kindle as a Kindle book and you can read it on Kindle now. It feels kind of good to be kindled."
"My book was out of print for a long time, but a new publisher reprinted it and put it on the Kindle book list and you could say my book has been rekindled. I love it!"
Kindle as a verb is catching on. Judy Goldberg in Delray Beach, Florida, tells me: "I've owned my Kindle for almost 6 months and love it. When I mention I'm reading a particular book, I refer to it as 'I'm Kindling such and such a book', so it's already a verb to me. It's hard to imagine reading a regular book now."
Liz Hill told me: "I don't 'kindle', but I know we certainly all 'google'. And that verb is
in the dictionary. I often 'skype' or tell people to skype me instead of calling me. So
there's another example. Maybe "kindle" will catch on as a verb, too. Who knows? Who knew?"
And Whitney Leader-Picone told this reporter: "I thought the point of the Kindle was the paper screen technology which made reading a book on a digital device not like a digital device at all. Computer screens start to hurt my eyes over the course of the day, which is why I have been so reluctant to consider ebooks in the past. The Kindle, I have heard, is gentle on the eyes. So wouldn't these differences differentiate "kindling" from reading online?"
And she added: "I don't really mind "to kindle" since the Kindle is so unique, but I am still skeptical about whether we need a new word for reading online. Also, shouldn't we let these new terms grow organically as they have in the past and as "to kindle" and "facebooking" have already?"
Not everyone agrees that kindle will make a good verb.
"I think this is the first time I've encountered 'kindle' as a verb," one blogger on the Internet said last November in a comment thread, almost six months ago. "Clever, but it sort of makes my skin crawl."
So do you kindle? Are you kindling now as we speak? Do you own a Kindle? Will you use kindle as a verb, or does it sort of make your skin crawl, too?
Stay tuned. As one top computer industry reporter at the New York Times told me in a recent email about this new use of the word kindle as a verb to mean "reading a book on a Kindle": "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."
Words are those things with wings. See Jane kindle. Watch Dick kindle.
posted by dan at 10:06 PM
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