On Apple’s Use of the Word “Musicologist”

Yesterday, Apple announced the HomePod, a speaker which incorporates microphones to access Siri. And as part of that presentation, they used the word “musicologist,” in a way that makes no sense.

Musicologist

It seems that Apple is using the word to mean “DJ,” perhaps riffing on the word “mixologist,” the hipster word for bartender.

It’s frankly stupid. Apple could easily have found out exactly what this word means:

Musicologist2

Pianist Andy Lee found this a bit disturbing:


It’s a bit odd that Apple would take a word with a very clear meaning and twist it in this way, just to sound hip.