In the previous post, I linked to a podcast by Andrew McCarthy. Do you recall the origin of the word “podcast”? It is a moment of tech history preserved in amber: a reference to the Apple iPod, a now-obsolete music player introduced in 2001. There are still many of them out there, but they will soon go the way of the cassette player and the VCR.
It’s always interesting to see how neologisms linger, long after their transient original context passes away. We still “tape” live events, and “dial” numbers, and every new political scandal is still christened as Something-gate. The whole English language is like this, and the lifespan of such coinages is potentially infinite — for example, we still draw a “salary” for our labors, even though it has been a very long time indeed since the soldiers of Rome were paid in salt.