Is journaling the right name for journaling?

Is journaling the right name for journaling?

Yesterday, someone mistook journaling for journalism (and this isn’t the first time). It led me to reflect whether or not “journaling” is really the write word to describe what journaling is.

Journaling is slightly different for everyone. Everyone has their own way to do it. Personally, I grab a pen and paper (and if inconvenient, voicenote or typing on my phone) and just write what comes to mind.

It often takes me some writing before getting into it, usually beginning with what I did that day, what’s on my mind, and then I go deeper and uncover emotions, or things that I may have been repressing.

But journaling can be so many things:

• Collage of things you enjoy
• Logging what you do each day
• Travel diary
• Gratitude journaling
• Bullet points of what’s on your mind
• Dream tracking
• And so much more!

So is “journaling” really the right word to incorporate all of these?

To me, it doesn’t suggest vulnerability, creativity, or depth, which quite frankly is a big part of journaling. It feels quite formal, it naturally makes one think of journalism which feels stressful (at least for me), and it using “jour” (day in French and latin languages), makes it feel that it should be daily.

Now for the big reveal??

Why is journaling called “journaling”?

The word journaling comes from the word journal, which itself originates from the Old French jurnal meaning "daily", and from the Latin diurnalis, meaning "daily" or "of the day" (dies = day).

So, journaling literally refers to the act of keeping a "daily record" — which is exactly what a journal was originally meant to be: a place to record daily events, thoughts, or reflections. Over time, journaling has evolved to include all kinds of self-expression, not just daily logs, but the name stuck because of its origins in routine, day-to-day writing.

(thank you and credits to ChatGPT for that)

I guess the word hasn’t evolved as its meaning has…

Should we change it? How can we allow the word to incorporate all the beauty that journaling involves?

The daily reflection, the creativity of writing, the cathartic moment of a realisation as we write… how do we incorporate all of that in just one word?

I’ll let you have a think!

Brought to you by:

Capucine Cogné

Co-founder of Journal Me