Friday, May 28, 2010

Granular unpacketed

Every so often, a relatively dormant word suddenly erupts. There was "transgressive" a few years ago, and "bloviate." And now I'm seeing "granular"—a lot.

A few examples: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the site's privacy issues by saying "Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls." Ariel Kaminer, commenting on the plethora of cell-phone cameras in Times Square, noted, "That’s surveillance far more intensive, and more granular, than anything Walgreens or Bank of America will ever manage." And today Journalism.co.uk reported, "For those of you that have been in hiding and didn’t know, Apple’s iPad launched in the UK today with granular reports from the media on who was the first to buy the device to who was the first to emerge from Apple's London store holding one (hopefully we’ll soon have details of who’s been the first person to leave theirs on the London Underground or to ask for a refund)."

I don't think they're talking about sugar.

3 comments:

Barbara said...

I hadn't noticed this new use of the word (what does it mean, exactly?), but now that you've pointed it out, I'm sure I'll be seeing it everywhere.

Robin Amos Kahn said...

I hadn't noticed it either and I need to look up the definition. I will keep an eye out for it!

Mia said...

Well, your guesses are as good as mine, but I think it means detailed or individualized or made up of lots of tiny parts.