www.alphadictionary.com

A very short word, usually a noun, but also an associated verb, with several meanings and connotations.

Appropriate to the season, as "Yule log", a portion of a tree trunk, in this setting set alight to provide warmth and encourage good fellowship. Also the result of chopping down a tree. (The related occupation is logging, which is performed by a logger.) The resulting product can then be appropriated for logrolling (which I learned as birling), in which two competitors, one standing on each end of a floating log, tries to dislodge the other by indulging in fancy footwork. Logrolling is also a political tactic, also known as horse trading.

And then there's the sense of recording, either for permanence as in a ship's log, or to obtain an observation as by a taffrail log (the result being recorded in the ship's log).

Finally (?) it can be short for logarithm, as in the designation of my still-appreciated slide rule, a "log log duplex decitrig". (Now, that's an etymological mashup.)

Good suggestion, Barbara.

And of course its modern use as a verb when we log in or on (surely one of those is incorrect?) to our computers. I am always amused when some systems require a log in but then a log off at closing time. And often a log on with a closing log out. They must both be incorrect - or at least inconsistent.

Good observation about logging (in/on;off/out). (How did I miss that?)

Maybe the origin of the differences is connected to particular computer manufacturers, like the difference between the ASCII vs. EBCDIC coding systems. To be explored in my voluminous/copious free time (VFT/CFT).

My laptop accepts "exit" when going away, but sometimes a quick "logo" flashes by before the screen goes blank. Which is not to be confused with "logo" = "logograph" or "logotype", But I've never seen "logi".

Ah, the path to computer sanity, LOGO = Log Off, Go Out.