Just some trivial comments as I haven't followed the thread for some days:
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Originally Posted by Crowl
I think you are slightly mistaken here, nobody is objecting to its usage in french, its not the only term, but there does actually seem to be some use of the word outside of mr.
The usage that more and more people seem to be objecting to (judging by the votes anyway) is the ongoing attempt by a small number of people to push its use as an english term as well despite the fact that it needlessly confuses matters just as terms like ebook, ereader etc are finally starting to gain a bit of mainstream recognition.
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I'm not sure the initial trigger was much more than merely asking if one liked the word or not - the discussion seemed to add issues like enforcing the word in English (although I still don't see that but others did). Whatever word is adopted by a large number of French users (or German users, Russian users, etc.), it will no doubt flow over into English language forums a little and become somewhat recognisable as "the French (or German, Russian, etc.) word for eBook Reader" or something like that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by delphidb96
There is no ambiguity to the meaning of the word "ebook".
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Even the most innocuous words or terms seem to provide scope for ambiguity. I think of an eBook as an electronic book with text and/or graphics. But my thinking could be incomplete as most booksellers seem to include audio books as eBooks when searching for titles. I think audio books are audio books, but I guess their electronic nature makes them a candidate as an eBook (electronic book). I don't like it, but it seems to be the current situation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
If the agreed upon term is ebook reader, then why are e-reader and ereader still in use?
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I think as a generic term it would probably be understood that an eBook Reader is an eReader or e-Reader, even though there is a specific eReader format for books - the context of the usage would probably be clear. And the similarity of eReader to eMail indicates to many that e = electronic and they can figure out the rest. I'm guessing we English speakers would also easily understand eBook device, eInk device, eInk Reader, and so on.
Funnily enough, this "generic" term of eBook Reader does not seem to be used by what could be considered the two top selling device manufacturers at the moment:
- The Kindle is a "Wireless Reading Device" or "Reading Device" on the Amazon page.
- The Sony is a somewhat inelegant "Reader Digital Books" on their page (I guess they're still reminiscing about the good ol' Sony Libre days).
Perhaps this is just part of the act of marketing - the need to identify your product as unique. Of course, third-party sellers and users tend to just use eBook Reader, eReader, or Reader (or of course, Sony or Kindle).
Which reminds me, I was using my BeBook on a plane just as it started to taxi. The flight attendant asked me if it was a Kindle, and I naturally started to explain that a Kindle was a device from Amazon, whilst this was another eBook Reader, and so on. It took me a minute to realise her point was that it was an electronic device that should be switched off, and she was clarifying with me that it was such an electronic reader, not a Kindle specifically. So I guess the terms in English are still somewhat fluid as well.