podcast

Where does the word "podcast" come from? It comes from English broadcast, and was adopted directly into English (2004).

Podcast’s story begins in English: broadcast meant “sown widely; transmitted.” Farming term for scattering seed widely by hand; applied to radio transmission in the 1920s, when the BBC began broadcasting in 1922. It reached English by 2004 as podcast. IPod (launched 2001) + broadcast; journalist Ben Hammersley floated the word in The Guardian in February 2004. Today, podcast means a digital audio series that can be downloaded or streamed.

1. Stage 1 · English · 1760s broadcast "sown widely; transmitted", farming term for scattering seed widely by hand; applied to radio transmission in the 1920s, when the BBC began broadcasting in 1922.
2. Stage 2 · English · 2004 podcast "downloadable audio series", iPod (launched 2001) + broadcast; journalist Ben Hammersley floated the word in The Guardian in February 2004.