The 'i' Word

No, not the tiresome bevy of Apple 'i' words. This one.


invent |inˈvent|

verb [ with obj. ]

create or design (something that has not existed before); be the originator of: he invented an improved form of the steam engine.

• make up (an idea, name, story, etc.), esp. so as to deceive: I did not have to invent any tales about my past.

ORIGIN late 15th cent. (in the sense ‘find out, discover’): from Latin invent- ‘contrived, discovered,’ from the verb invenire, from in- ‘into’ + venire ‘come.’

Anyone else tired of the recent, increasingly frequent overuse of the word invent, as in Steve Jobs invented the iPod? If you go by the example above that Apple invented an improved form of the digital music player then yes, Steve Jobs or Jony Ive or the guy who was put in charge of the iPod project invented the iPod. But come on, didn't invent used to mean someone created something that didn't exist before and does something that we couldn't do before. There were already (crappy) digital players on the market before the iPod. Invention should be used for truly new creations, such as Edison and the lightbulb, Daguerre and the photograph, or even better, Reard & Heim and the bikini. By the way, Jacques Heim was, as expected for the inventor of the bikini, a fashion designer but Louis Reard was a car engineer whose mom owned a lingerie store. Kind of neat (go Wikipedia!).

But here is why I love being a guy. Heim first named their world's "smallest bathing suit" the atome because the reaction guys would have when they saw gals wearing these things would be like an atomic explosion. Reard, liking the idea but being a bit more clever, renamed it the bikini after the nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll. Over sixty years later men still have little atomic explosions in their swim shorts when they see the ladies in bikinis. Steve Jobs (God rest his soul) arguably "invented" the iPod, but the bikini? Now, that's a real invention.

However, who ever invented the mankini should be mauled by sharks while swimming in his invention (I'm against capital punishment but fine with it when incidentally carried out by hungry animals).