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News: Talk online about your experiences as an adjunct, visiting assistant professor, postdoc, or other contract faculty member.
 
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Author Topic: Noun-Verb Transitions.  (Read 3174 times)
peppergal
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« Reply #15 on: November 04, 2009, 09:21:52 PM »
Quote from: hestia on November 04, 2009, 08:07:13 PM
What drives me nuts is "orientate," which is at best a monstrous outgrowth backformation of a verb from another verb derived from a noun.

Me too.  And "disorentate".  And especially "disorientated".
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verbena
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« Reply #16 on: November 05, 2009, 01:03:44 AM »
Quote from: conjugate on November 04, 2009, 10:46:09 AM
Quote from: verbena on November 04, 2009, 10:33:03 AM
And here I always thought "she summered, she wintered, she sprang, she fell" was a line from e. e. cummings, but now I'm not sure where I got that from.
Well, Google Books gives me "Down home with Jennie Allen" by Grace Donworth (1910):
This link

Thanks -- that actually looks worth reading, too.

As for "conversate," that's so awful I think it's almost good again.
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"My kind of paper, into lots of fiber."
wegie
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« Reply #17 on: November 05, 2009, 05:31:43 AM »
Page 2 and nobody's mentioned "incentivize"?

WH actually used it in a conversation with me a couple of months ago. I still haven't worked out what I did to deserve that.
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conjugate
Compulsive punster and insatiable reader, and
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Tends to have warped sense of humor
« Reply #18 on: November 05, 2009, 10:00:44 AM »
Quote from: wegie on November 05, 2009, 05:31:43 AM
Page 2 and nobody's mentioned "incentivize"?

WH actually used it in a conversation with me a couple of months ago. I still haven't worked out what I did to deserve that.

Wouldn't it incense you if someone "incent"s you?  Of course, the word motivate has its uses, too.
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Quote from: shastymcnasty on June 08, 2010, 07:22:40 PM
Unfortunately, I think conjugate gives good advice.
∀ε>0∃δ>0∋|x–a|<δ⇒|ƒ(x)-ƒ(a)|<ε
frogfactory
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« Reply #19 on: November 05, 2009, 09:31:12 PM »
'Burglarize'.

Waaah.
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Quote from: erzuliefreda on June 30, 2011, 08:49:04 AM

At the end of the day, sometimes you just have to masturbate in the bathroom.
jossi66
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« Reply #20 on: November 06, 2009, 02:08:28 PM »
I recently had lunch with a friend who does this ad nauseum.  She always does this by coming up with phrases like, "We're going to (noun) it" , as in, We're going to pizza it for lunch, or We decided to Jeopardy it for that lesson.  I like my friend, but this makes me crazy.  I am ready to staitjacket it every time she goes on like that.
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magistra
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discolor unde auri per ramos aura refulsit.
« Reply #21 on: November 06, 2009, 08:30:14 PM »
My own sore spot is a verb-adjective change(ish): doable.  The word is possible, people.  Possible.  Same number of syllables, easy to say, even the same ending.  Means "able to be done".  Why in the world do we need to doable?


Possible!
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First it was Wolfram and Hart, now it's Blackboard.  There's not much moral difference, if you ask me. -- Malcha

Grammar is the chocolate in the buttery croissant of life.  -- Yellowtractor

Okay, so that was petty.  Today, I feel like embracing pettiness.  -- Mended Drum
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