Etymologically
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blog

Etymology and origin of the English word blog

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1998
Ultimate origin
English (weblog)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /blɒɡ/, US /blɑːɡ/[1]

Etymology

It is a shortening from English weblog,[2][3][4] itself formed from web and log.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An online journal: 1998 in Etymonline,[2] 1999 in Merriam-Webster.[3] Weblog is attested from 1993, but then meant a file recording each request received by a web server.[2]

Semantic evolution

The Blogger online publishing service was launched in 1999.[2] The verb, to write or update a blog, is first American, from 1999 in Merriam-Webster[3] and in the New Partridge from 2000,[5] and has given blogger and blogging.[4][6] Hendrickson finds no connection with Joe Bloggs, the British name for an average man,[7] which is from about 1969.[2] An older blog, from about 1860, was a servant boy in a college house, described by Partridge as a perversion of bloke.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1860 – an older blog, a servant boy.[2]
  • 1993 – weblog, a server log.[2]
  • 1998 – an online journal.[2]
  • 1999 – verb, and the Blogger service.[3][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A website on which a person or group regularly posts opinions, information or links, newest first.

Verb

  1. To write or update a blog.
  2. To write about something in a blog.
  • weblog
  • web
  • log
  • vlog

Usage notes

In Devon and Cornwall dialect a blog was a figurative use of block, of anything resembling a block.[8]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
  5. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
  6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
Cite this entry

“Blog.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/blog. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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