twizzle, vingle, idolspize

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 3/1/06, Landau, James <James.Landau at ngc.com> wrote:
>
> Ben Zimmer quoted the following:
>
> "But what about the ultra-hip techsters at Apple, who are trying to
> trademark the term "vingle"? On the simplest level, vingles are
> downloadable music videos on iTunes (though the trademark application
> suggests they have larger, multimedia network world domination plans in
> mind). "
>
> I have a suspicion that "vingle" is a derivative of the well-established
> computer term "dongle" ("vi" + "-ngle").
>
> A dongle is a hardware device that fits onto a port on the back of a
> computer and allows you to use an expensive piece of copyrighted
> software. =20

I had assumed "vingle" was just a blend of "video single". I see the
writer for TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) had the same thought,
though commenters suggest the "-ngle" derives from "mingle" or, yes,
"dongle".

http://www.tuaw.com/2005/10/14/apple-trademarks-vingle/


--Ben Zimmer

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