Monday, July 26, 2010

Don't noun me, bro

Apparently, some are angsting over the transformation of some nouns to verbs.



Sunday’s “The Word” column in the Globe explains.

What do these words and phrases have in common? Friend, Google, TiVo, log in, contact, barbecue, unlike, concept, text, Photoshop, leverage, party, Xerox, reference, architect, parent, improv, transition, diligence, host, chair, gift, heart, impact?

They’ve all been declared--by someone, somewhere, whether a usage expert or just a self-appointed language cop--”not verbs.” It doesn’t matter whether they’re useful, interesting, or entertaining as verbs; to many people, if a word began its life as a noun, then ”verbing” it (like I did there) is just wrong.

No comments: