Oxford says 'podcast' is word of the year

NEW YORK, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The New York editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected "podcast" as the word of the year for 2005, beating out such others as bird flu.

Erin McKean, editor in chief of the dictionary, said podcast was considered for inclusion last year, "but we found that not enough people were using it, or were even familiar with the concept."

But this year it's a different story, and it will be included in the 2006 edition, due out early next year, Techtree.com reported.

It will be defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player."

Other words or terms that were considered included bird or avian flu; Sudoku, a logic-based numeric puzzle consisting of squares that form grids within a grid; trans fat, the unhealthy trans-fatty acids in food; and squick, which means to cause immediate and thorough revulsion.