ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Before we end this last All Tech Considered of 2016, we must consider the dongle.</s>ADRIANNE JEFFRIES: A dongle is a small thing that plugs into a computer or a phone that gives you some added capability either as an adapter or connecting some other device that lets you do a new thing.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: That's Adrianne Jeffries. She's an editor at a news website called The Outline, and she uses dongles, a few adapters, for her new MacBook. But she hates the name and wanted a new one.</s>ADRIANNE JEFFRIES: This all started because the word dongle makes me slightly uncomfortable and other people slightly uncomfortable. And it just makes you feel silly saying it.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: So her staff came up with replacement names and narrowed the list down to three.</s>ADRIANNE JEFFRIES: Throughport, which we thought sounded cool and futuristic, Schiller, named after the Apple executive Phil Schiller who gave this grandiose speech about how brave it was for them to force everyone to use dongles. And the last word of the three original contenders was plugadoo.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Readers voted and the winner - drum roll please.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: With 50 percent of the vote, dongle.</s>ADRIANNE JEFFRIES: It's no use trying to replace it.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: As Adrianne Jeffries writes, you're welcome, America. You have the word you deserve.
A website called The Outline sought to a find better name for the device known as the "dongle." The staff there came up with replacement names, and they narrowed the list down to three. Readers voted. The winner? With 50 percent of the vote: dongle.