Friday, March 28, 2008

I Love To Verb Nouns

In other words, I like to take nouns and turn them into verbs. Don't look at me like I'm crazy. A lot of the words we use in English probably got their start this way. Such as 'phoning' someone.

But, in addition to using these like everyone else, I also like less acceptable ones.

Such as envelope. I don't turn that noun into a verb in the traditional sense. I use it to describe the process of putting a letter in an envelope. Such as 'I enveloped a stack of letters to mail today.' You can also say 'enveloping' or 'envelope' depending on what tense you are putting something in an envelope.

But my favorite has to be 'lightninging'. Probably because of the double 'ing' ending. If it's really stormy, and the lightning is flashing, that means it is really 'lightninging' out. Or you could say, in the past tense, that it 'lightninged' hard.

Any other good ones?

3 comments:

  1. Hmmm, the opposite of gerunding?

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  2. Here's one from corporate America.

    Tasking - I am tasking the intern to get me a cookie. ;-)

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  3. I overheard my daughter say to her friend, "Facebook me!" I wittily remarked, "Facebook me? That's not a verb! Do you tell someone to MySpace you, too?" Guess what her answer was?

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