BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'

Subject: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 09:01 AM

A subject dear to the hearts of pedantic old fogey types. This was a new one on me, on BBC News today. Someone was "the youngest person to summit Everest", and the phrase was used again later in the bulletin. Can't say I'll be using this phrase myself, I think it sounds stupid, and "trying to be modern". Any other good examples knocking around.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 09:59 AM

coffee snobs are now having gatherings where they chat about blends, etc., and then proceed to "cupping"...arrrggghhh!!

heard in an office.."my staff has surfaced some useful data on that subject."

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 10:23 AM

1. Relating to, on, or at a surface: surface algae in the water. 2. Relating to or occurring on or near the surface of the earth. 3a. Superficial. b. Apparent as opposed to real.
VERB: Inflected forms: sur·faced, sur·fac·ing, sur·fac·es

TRANSITIVE VERB: To provide with a surface or apply a surface to: surface a table with walnut; surface a road with asphalt.
INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To rise to the surface. 2. To emerge after concealment. 3. To work or dig a mine at or near the surface of the ground.

I guess they took the data and put varnish on it, then?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 10:26 AM

yup...made it REAL shiny! (easier to dazzle the boss)

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 10:31 AM

I recently heard my first use of the verb "to target" in a new meaning. It used to mean "to aim at something"(itself a noun-as-verb coinage). The new meaning I heard was when I heard it used to mean "to reach a target" or "to get there" the other day.The sentence was"We managed to target last year". At least I think it's a new usage(in England,at least), I can't recall hearing that before.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 10:32 AM

Lots of computer related ones, I suspect, one of which is to google:-). Funny, so far I've not heard anyone say they "yahooed."

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 10:47 AM

Kat: I'm not sure I'd even accept 'Google' as a noun. It's a tradename which doesn't yet seem to have made it into the dictionaries. If it ever does it will probably go in as both noun and verb.
The term seems much in used on-line, but if that were a means of being accepted for dictonaries we would start getting some of the wierder expressions from text messaging in. Such as 'l8r' for 'later'.
For most of my life the changes in the dictionary have been mainly for imported words now in English usage, and words invented to cover new ideas and science (moon walk, astronaut...etc.,)

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 10:55 AM

well, some are useful, clever, and actually help avoid longer constructions, but some are just cutesy affectations, like 'authoring'   'guesting' and 'transitioning'.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 11:08 AM

One of the newest in the computer world is "to slashdot" from www.slashdot.org. It means to become wildly successful.

Me, I hate "prioritize." And "stonewall." And especially the redundant "at this point in time" -- better to say "at this point" or "at this time" because, after all, you don't say "at this point in space" do you? (If so, you got problems unless you're in science or engineering.)

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 11:14 AM

Nigel, agreed, but I wasn't aware this was supposed to be only about words which are "dictionaried!" **RBG** You heard it here, first!

I did read about "to google" in an article which said it has entered the general population of Internet surfers. The article was specific about how it went from a company name to being used as a verb.

How about downsizing? How long has to downsize been used?

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Genie
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 12:31 PM

When I first eyed an article, a few years back, where some guy said he couldn't stomach the "current trend" of using dishing out nouns as verbs, I bought into that idea -- that it was new. Then, on reflection, I tabled the protest, realizing that verbs have spawned nouns and vice-versa for centuries.

The "verbification" of a noun bothers me less than the (apparent) attempt to be really "with it" and clever. ("Can you ballpark the figure for me?" And [shudder] the dreaded "Oh, baby, how you impacted me when I first saw you!"] And the worst of all is that, given the speed of worldwide communication today, any grammatical mistake or neologism that is used on TV (in a sitcom or a news broadcast or commentary) almost instantly makes it into currently practiced English parlance -- so the next edition of Merriam-Webster will give it as accepted usage!

Genie

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 01:09 PM

Dont get me wrong, genie. I have no objection to languages changing, or using verbs as nouns. I just sometimes think new coinages are quiet amusing. And frequently unnecessary. When I get round to climbing Everest, I will announce on this forum that I got to the top, not that I summitted(summited?).

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: *daylia*
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 01:35 PM

Quite often I find myself toasting some toast,
and sometimes I catch myself boasting a boast.
But now I intend to start roasting a roast
So cheers to you all! I'm posting this post!

:)   daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 02:24 PM

Very good daylia!!. I google frequently, myself. I used to do other things such as lycos or crawl, and have even been known to hotbot around, but really, all that is in the past. Now, I just google. I don't dogpile anymore, either! Googling is the greatest indoor sport since Parcheesi, if you ask me. Except maybe for Ouijaing. Haven't Ouija'd in a coon's age, though. I used to spend a lot of time, when I was younger, Kipling, too. Those were the good old days.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 03:29 PM

"I don't Kipple, and I don't Google,
We old pedants are much too froogle.
I'll just type some words and search;
My reputation I'll not besmirch.

You young folks go ahead and 'summit',
I'll just sit here on my bum, (it
Serves me well now in my dotage),
As I comment on your heinous quoteage."

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 03:33 PM

oh...by the way, Genie!

"some guy said he couldn't stomach
the.. " now THERE'S one to research!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 03:54 PM

LOL!! Well-done, ol' curmudgeon!!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 04:00 PM

Bill, that was very adroit indeed!!

Now, about "quotage"...aren't you just the tiniest bit ashamed?? LOL!!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 04:53 PM

Nigel - What dictionary were you using that didn't have "google" in it? The search engine "Google" borrowed the word from mathematics where it means an extremely large number - the largest one that has been given a name. I know mathematicians have been using it for at least thirty years. A math professor at the college where I used to work had personalized license plates on his car that read "GOOGLE" way back in the 70's.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Wa Ban Zhou
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 04:57 PM

One of the nice things for me about living and teaching English in China is that no one ever wanted to ballpark anything with me.
                                           Wa Ban Zhou

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST, herc
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 05:07 PM

When I bed my next target, I will gladly post here that I summited.

D

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 05:27 PM

Does anyone ever use "surmount" anymore? Was it ever "sir mount?" **BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 06:45 PM

a google was 1 followed by a hundred zeros...but then someone came up with 'googleplex' which was one followed by a Google of zerosnow, I suppose *I* could claim there was a 'googlemultiplex', or 1 followed by a googleplex of zeros. It's easy to construct names.

(and Amos..I was more proud of rhythming 'summit' with 'bum, it'...*grin*)

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 07:40 PM

Another one: snowballed, as in the South Shore of Massachusetts got snowballed, today. Another foot of the white stuff...heyaNight Owl!!**BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 07:42 PM

Google a good word, I think. There's no other word meaningbteh same, and it looks and sounds good.

I like it when a trademark word takes off this way, and the owners lose control of it - I mean, when you hoover the floor, you are more than likely to be using some other make of vacuum cleaner; when you want to keep your tea warm, you use a thermos flask, but it probably will be a different make entirely; and when you say you wrote something in biro, noone assumes that's the type of ballpoint pen you actually used.

The people who own the trademarks hate that, but I think we owe it to them to get up their noses in that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 07:46 PM

I then we can offer them a "Kleenex."

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 09:09 PM

Aren't you confusing google with googol?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 10:58 PM

no...well...yes...but "Google" knew they were using that notion as part of their identity, I just forgot to make the connection...it's the folk process!!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 07 Mar 03 - 04:42 AM

Things get worse.... Its bad enough to have "mentor" used as a verb without having the unfortunate recipient known as a "mentee"! This one appeared on our college noticeboard lately. I thought it was just a local aberration - but apparently not.

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 07 Mar 03 - 10:45 AM

Mentee. MENTEE??? Jesus wept!! I suppose thanks to these barbarians that tutors will be advertising for tutees? Residents of Luxor will become Luxees? And the women of Bangor...what will become of them????


A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: beadie
Date: 07 Mar 03 - 10:53 AM

Edwin Newman, where are you now that we need you so?


I'm still upset at the tendency to take a verb (for instance - "to orient"), use it in its process form ("orientation"), and then return it to the verb form without shedding all of the excess letters ("to orientate").

For crying out loud, how long will it be before we are "implementating" things? . . . or experimentating?

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Mar 03 - 10:56 AM

And if there is a dispute between mentor and mentee which leads to the arangement being cancelled mentee becomes dementored,and the mentor becomes demented.

I think notices like that should count as constructive dismissal.

And if you attack someone they become an aggressee. And a prisoner gets known as a captee instead of a captive.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Mar 03 - 11:49 AM

"..the women of Bangor..."

it is impossible to show, even in MY whimsical typing style, the tears running down my face and uncontrolled paroxysms of laughter as I hit that phrase....suffice it to say that I am humbled, Amos. *grin*

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Mar 03 - 11:50 AM

The other thing that gets me, with educational institutions, are cutesy signs such as this:

*******Kids Preschool
because we Kare!

And they are supposed to set an example!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 07 Mar 03 - 03:38 PM

Made mah day, Bill D -- you're my Toast Postee of the Week!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: JennyO
Date: 08 Mar 03 - 11:35 PM

Does this mean that if you are a secret Santa, you Santor your Santee?

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 01:51 AM

I have a question about climbing Everest

If people climb Everest because it's hard, why then do they always climb the easy side?

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 02:45 AM

Because it's there, Clinton.

The most outrageous one I've heard recently is donor and--choke--donee.

As much as I admire and respect Edwin Newman, the truth is that none of us pedants has a snowball's chance in hell of preventing these changes, no matter how loud we pout. I've just accepted the fact that "enormity" is now just a variant of "bigness" and has pretty much lost its meaning of "great evil"; and that "reticent" now means "reluctant" instead of "taciturn", so the phrase "reticent to speak" no longer belongs to the Department of Redundancy Department. (After all, "naughty" used to mean "awful", and "awful" used to mean "wonderful.")

Aloha (literally, "I see your living breath"),
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: BlueJay
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 03:59 AM

Verbizing nouns has always bothered me. I always try to letterize my sentences for maximum effectuicity. By god, we've got to start ruleizing some of this shit, or the English language is foredoomed.
Thanks, BlueJay

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Susanl
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 04:36 AM

"Nice" used to mean ugly, mean, rude centuries ago. Language changes. I hate when it changes in thoughtless ways. But noone cares what I think. It changes anyway.

My pet peeves aren't rational. I can accept so many things that happen to English. But these things drive me CRAZY!!! "Perculate" instead of percolate (although we won't hear that very often or for much longer), "nucular" (and I've heard physicists pronounce it that way which astonishes me), apostrophes being used for plural when they only belong to the possessive (e.g. CD's for sale) and "myself" and the like being used in a verbose and inaccurate way (e.g. "If you have any questions, please address them to the secretary or myself".)I'm new at Mudcat and I'm sure those points have been brought up a million times so I'm being redundant but I had to say something about it someone somewhere. So, thanks Mudcat. (Sorry Mudcatters. Thanks for listening.)

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Susanl
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 04:42 AM

TO someone somewhere. That's what I meant, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Hrothgar
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 04:50 AM

I get irritated when I see a noun used as a verb when there is a perfectly good and obvious (and related) verb available. The best example that springs to mind is to "trial" something instead of "try" it.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 06:53 AM

New Zealand is full of them. Any noun = verb is the rule.

They also delight in curiosities like "up-take" which is a direct eqivalent to "pick up" as in "up-take a sales leaflet about the subject"

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 09:04 AM

Susanl:

Welcome to the maddening merry-go-round of the 'Cat, glad to have you here. Sure we've peeved these articulations before, but we're always glad to hear from a new peevee!! (I think it is a disease spreading from Washington!)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 09:37 AM

That's odd, I posted to this late last night and now it's gone.

I just saw this in a medical article on line: speaking of women who had hysterectomies: hysterectomized! Funny, I thought I was just "spayed!"

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: *daylia*
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 10:57 AM

Well, I'd add to this shower of witticisms, but now I hafta go shower!

Little Hawk is back from Trinidad   :)   and we're going out for lunch. If we can find our way through the yet another meter (well, 15 cm) of snow we got dumped with last night that is!

A real snow-job! he he he

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 11:55 AM

Kat: I agree about hysterectomized, why not call a spayed a spayed?

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 12:04 PM

LMAO, Nigel, good one! Aye dinna see tha' comin'!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 12:36 PM

and he was in full speight. Ho Ho Ho.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 05:31 PM

i actually rather like ' to summit'. Many people climb a mountain but not nearly all of them 'summit'. And surely summit is better than 'peak': I peaked a mountain...:)

Summit has a connotation of exhilarated fulfillment that 'I made it to the top' doesn't have, imo.

Differences of opinion make a horse race (or laugh).

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 07:41 PM

Once upon a time it was held that horses sweated, men perspired, and women glowed. For the same reason I would be highly reluctant to describe a woman as having been spayed! :>) It's a word I associate with pets.

But there is no justification for the coinage of hysterectomized!! Why not a simple construction, such as "underwent a hysterectomy", "had her womb cut out" or more politely, perhaps, "underwent surgery for feminine complications"? It seems to me we don't really need a coinage for everything, and that some things are (and should be) actually dignified by circumlocutions.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 07:52 PM

I misremembered a movie in another thread recently (nobody noticed, hehe), but what I meant to say was that in the movie, Picasso Summer, Michel Legrande wrote a song which was used as background music which had the words, "Summer me, winter me..."    Now what does that mean?

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 08:54 PM

A number of those mentioned so far became noticable in the 1970s, although their history is probably older. Civil servants coined many of them- British, Australian, American, Canadian- their papers (Bunff) are too boring to read, but going through their memos would turn up older dates for many of these verbs from nouns.

Mentioned above- to stomach. This is an old one, first in print in 1523.
And Mary, if you were a gardener, you would know that to winter, or to summer, plants, roots, bulbs is old usage indeed. Do you have to winterize your car where you live? Just winter me where it is warm.

Medical people use a lot of these words- lobotomize for example, from the 1930s. Hysterectomize is horrible, I agree. (Er, the first is even worse).

While I was checking a word here, I ran across gnosticize (from Gnostic) in the Oxford. Dates back to the 1860s in print.

Verbicizing nouns has been going on in English since the language became identifiable as a language.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 10:18 PM

Oh, please, Amos! Not the old-fashioned Victorian oblique references to unmentionable parts! We fought long and hard to be able to say vagina, penis, uterus, ovulate, cervix, testicles, etc. without having to couch them in such terms! And, actually we should make them take back "hyster" since it perpetuates that hysterical sterotype of a woman. So, what? They took it out, so I can no longer be hysterical?! I am woman hear me roar!**bg**

I equate spayed with pets, too, BUT I am a cat AND it's kind of like the Virginian said, "Smile when you call me that!" I wouldn't want just anyone to refer to it that way, but I can and will when referring to myself.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 11:15 PM

Well, I dunno kat, about circulating terms and then telling people only you can use them. Seems a tad unfair to me. Tell ya what -- I'll retract the Victorian slant, and call you spayed, if you'll lower the bar on fair use! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 11:32 PM

Spayed, of course, is when even the urge to mate is taken away- so human beings do not get spayed. They get only the capacity to bear young taken away.

Same with 'neutering'. Male animals get neutered- human males get the duct cut, so the urge to mate is intact, only the means to reproduce has been compromised.

As you all know. But it bothers me to hear those phrases tossed around so freely and inaccurately. You can say you got yourself 'fixed', though!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 11:49 PM

The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug, as Mark Twain pointed out.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 11:49 PM

Okay, okay, "fixed" it is, but I didn't feel broke(n)! **BG** Darn, there goes Nigel's great turn of phrase! darn, I guess i just had an uterectomy...so maybe they uterized me? LOL!!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 12:20 AM

I like 'uterectomy'!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 12:32 AM

Why, thank yew! Remember you read it here, first! What a hot spot Mudcat is!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 05:39 AM

My pet hates are 'Parenting', and an new one which I keep hearing spouted ad nauseam by 'IT Professionals' (whatever they are!) - 'Leverage', as in "We need to leverage this up" - surely it should be "We need to lever this up" or "We need to apply leverage to this"?

It's also their practice to pronounce it the US way here in the UK, with a short 'e' instead of the long-'e' UK pronunciation, 'Leever'.
Prats the lot of 'em.
JB

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 05:46 AM

From "dictionary.com" it seems this use of the word has already been dictionarised! Nigel


"lev·er·age    ( P ) Pronunciation Key (lvr-j, lvr-)
n.

The action of a lever.
The mechanical advantage of a lever.
Positional advantage; power to act effectively: "started his... career with far more social leverage than his father had enjoyed" (Doris Kearns Goodwin).
The use of credit or borrowed funds to improve one's speculative capacity and increase the rate of return from an investment, as in buying securities on margin.

tr.v. lev·er·aged, lev·er·ag·ing, lev·er·ag·es

To provide (a company) with leverage.
To supplement (money, for example) with leverage.
To improve or enhance: "It makes more sense to be able to leverage what we [public radio stations] do in a more effective way to our listeners" (Delano Lewis). "

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Sooz(at work)
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 06:05 AM

What about the nounification of adjectives and/or adverbs? "Mobile" is my pet hate - in more ways than one come to think of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 07:48 AM

Ebbie

Call me a pedant but medically what you describe is vasechtomy because it is the vas defferens that are cut. Vas is a vessel (as in tube) and can be described as a duct.

The best way to describe it is PAINFULL.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 08:53 AM

Well, Sooz, I think "mobile" and it's younger brother "stabile" are examples of specialized fields coming up with terms to talk about things not found in the commons -- in this case art forms, but the principle occurs in every trade. "Modem" and "register" are prime examples. Maybe we should opportunize the situation and invent specialized terms for folkies so we too could exclusivize our peers, thus leveraging our status. A way of making the pie higher.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 10:54 AM

Dear Nigel/Sooz/Amos,

Excuse me while I scream.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!

Johnny

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 11:31 AM

Well, I'd say there is something in common between a mother and a father when it comes to what they do to their children, and I can't think of another word than "parenting" that would cover it.

The two requirements for a new word is that it should be necessary/useful, and that it should sound right. The latter part is where most of those words ending up "ize" fall down. Often enough - bu no means always - they are meeting a need for a word, but they just do it so badly. Which means the vacancy is still open.

But very often, if you hunt around, the word you need is there all the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Sooz
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 01:04 PM

I don't have a problem with "parenting" either. In these days when not every family has two, its good not to offend the one which remains. Also not to make a division between "mothering" and "fathering" is helpful. I ramble so I'll stop.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 01:20 PM

Thread creep-
Hyster- goes back to the old Greek word for womb. Hysyeralgia, a pain in the womb, goes back (the word, that is) to the 17th century. Women may suffer from hysteric passion. Hysterectomies began in the 1880s. Tomlinson wrote (1657) that the plague is a poyson retained in hysterical women. Crooke, in 1615, wrote- "Hysterical women, that is, such as are in fits of the mother."
Lots of interesting stuff in the OED! What? Would you dispute these conclusions by men of science?

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 01:37 PM

LOL, Q! I'm sticking to my uterical!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 02:01 PM

Of course that's a combination of a Latin word and a greek word. Using "uterus" as the word for womb I think it really should be "uterosection", or "uteroextraction".

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: beadie
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 02:48 PM

Mr. Red:

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 02:48 PM

Uterotomy, performed with a uterotome as the utible instrument. Ha! new word for me.
From now on I will use utible for usable. Or utilious? Even better. Love that OED!

I have heard the phrase "to dollar it to death." Somehow translating this into the British monetary equivalent doesn't quite work.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,herc
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 02:51 PM

daylia, I'm sorry you got metered yesterday.
dan

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: beadie
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 02:53 PM

Mr. Red:

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: beadie
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 02:58 PM

I have no idea why this thing won't let me post any more than the opening of my last two attempts.

I have been trying to say that (from first hand experience) a vasectomy doesn't hurt any more than having your teeth cleaned. If you had one done and felt more than minor discomfort, SUE.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 03:04 PM

LOL @ "Q"

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Beccy
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 03:14 PM

Call me Nero Wolfe if you must, but the oddities of language that irritate me are:

Futurecast (duh)
Newscast (ergh)
Stormcast (puhleeeeeeze)


Why does everything have to be made flashy or cute? Butchering of the language does not equal originality. I blame advertising. I'd like to share a little bit of what makes it onto our airwaves and print media around here. I will use their punctuation and spelling.

"Eatin' good. In the neighborhood." Applebee's
"Take pictures. Further." Kodak
"Once you pop, the fun don't stop." Pringles


I could continue, but I won't. I think the most distressing development is the tendency to use guillotine sentences in print advertising. They really should know better than to make a string of sentences that consist entirely of adjectives.

I'm done for now.

Beccy


Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 04:42 PM

Part of the problem stems from the incompatible uses of language. Those seeking to communicate appreciate the subtleties that using language well provides, and they like them because ti makes greater communication possible. Greater communication is based on greater discrimination between similarities, which asymptotically approaches the communication of truth as understanding increases.

Others wish to use the same tool for the purpose of control and "operating" people's minds for them, not communicating. To this group, any association of syllables that will produce a desired behaviour, willing or not, understanding or not, is endowed with legitimacy because it seems to forward their shabby purposes. They have no concern for understanding, only for reaction induced. George Bush and advertisers are birds of this feather. People who slang up the language in a sloppy way often do so because they are trying to impress and NOT trying to communicate -- so they paint bizarre "scenarios" and use word like "leveraging" and "branding" and "bottom-line" to make themselves sound smart, tight, hip and effective, when what they are really doing is simply advertising their egos. Been there. Got the tee shirt!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 04:49 PM

Language rules never apply in advertising, though. The goal is to use the least words possible to convey all of the benefits one might experience through whatever product is being touted, i.e. not buy this chair because it reclines and has a cushy seat and a bunch of other features...SINK into this chair and FEEL the softness as you drift off to a hot dream filled with nubile nymphettes or hunks, etc.

And, of course to say this chair is entirely wrong unless one has it to hand.

Advertising will always be short bits of the language because they are driven by space restrictions and cost.

I'll never forget my old blessed Latin and English teacher, Mrs. Worcester. She was always pointing out shoddy adverts to us, the most famous of which was "Winston tastes good as a cigarette should!"

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 04:51 PM

Forgot one other word I hear all of the time, but I don't thnk it's been mentioned, yet: outsourcing! HATE it!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 09:40 PM

I don't like 'crispy'. Why won't 'crisp' do?

Or: It was so fun! Or even: It was funner today.

I suspect that my great grandchildren (should that day arrive) and I will not be able to communicate.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 11:14 PM

Looks like Mrs. Worcester must've been channeling. Of course I meant the offending advert said "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!

G'night, Mrs. W.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 08:46 AM

McGrath can't think of an alternative to "parenting". Well, my parents brought me up, I don't recall any parenting in those days. And male and female parents are equally capable(linguistically at least) of bringing kids up. Or "raising" them, which is, or was, I believe the American term.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 09:10 AM

I parent, thou parentest, he/she parents, we parent, you parent, they parent --- nawww, it really doesn't fly as a verb. As a noun describing the activities of a parent, maybe. What's wrong with fathering and mothering, two verbs which have, at least, a little time under their belts? (And which were probably considered outrageous misuse of language when they started verbing around).

"What's this younger generation coming to" has been a popular indoor sport for two thousand years -- the earliest sample I have seen came from ancient Rome. By and large, I'd say, it is mostly Chicken Little eating sour grapes.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 10:25 AM

Amos, you're on a real early 20th C. roll these days! "Mothering" and "fathering?" With all of the different types of families we have these days? What of the lesbian couple who raise chidren together? Do we have to assign them such traditional titles? I don't think so. I suppose one could say they "mother" a child or "father" but to me it just sounds too trad.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 12:20 PM

Well, I reckon they could take turns, mothering and fathering. Depends on which side of the divide you're promoting at the time. But, ya know, it's a good point, Kat. Maybe there is a Unisex verb in there, and if parenting is the best we can come up with, so be it, but I think I'd rather stick to "nurturing" or "larnin'" or "whuppin' up alongside the haid" depending on the kind of parenting being done.
Hate to lose all them refined meanings in one portmanteau -- it gets to be like a gal's handbag -- can't find anything even if you know its in there somewhere! :>) (ducks and runs off stage left, pursued by a stereotype,....).

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 12:23 PM

Well..better an empty handbag than scrotum, eh?


also running and ducking for cover

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 12:29 PM

Yeah -- but speaking of scrota, one thing I've learned about them is you always know what's in them, and where to find it....although gettingit out can be tricky.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: *daylia*
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 12:57 PM

Well I kinda like the word 'parenting'. It highlights the fact that being a parent/homemaker is a full-time and most strenuous activity, even if it doesn't result in a paycheck. As a (mostly) single parent of three, I used to find it so humiliating when people would ask "And do you work too?"

I've known so many people who produced offspring, but never developed the slightest interest in or ability to 'parent'.

I'm quite relieved that time has allowed me to shelve any residual resentments!

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 03:02 PM

I would think that raising a human being would be honored as the most meaningful and often difficult and tricky work that can be done. Offices and machines and documents are a piece of cake compared to a two-year-old!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 06:03 PM

True enough Greg, but you can be brought up by lots of other people who aren't your parents. Nurture is another word meaning the same thing, and a better one, I'd say.

But I can't actually see anyway in which a frozen metaphor like "brought up" - which after all sounds like what you do when you've eaten something unpleasant - is a better way of saying it than "parent". Language changes, and sometime the changes aren't for the worse.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 09:58 PM

Looking up meanings on ballad, the verb, to ballad (to write ballads), goes back to the 16th century. There is nothing in the English language that says a noun must stay a noun or a verb a verb. The dictionary is full of these shifts in usage.
Parent in verb form has been in use in North America for about 50 years in print.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Sooz(away from home)
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 02:52 AM

I've just heard a new one (at least to me) on the BBC breakfast news. Roger Black was speculating wheter or not Colin Jackson would "medal" in the indoor athletics. Ouch!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: greg stephens
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 05:49 AM

McGrath, I think I'm inclined to agree with you, "parenting" is more specific than "bringing up". But I'm not completely convinced. You're saying many people can be involved in "bringing up"(OK it does mean vomiting, but lots of things have two meanings, one of them unfortunate): but only one or two can be parents. I think there might be a grey area here. What happens if mum and dad day(or mum and mum in the lesbian case), and Auntie Edna takes the kids on. Is she then "parenting", or only bringing up or raising? And would this change if she formally adopted them? Anyway, I just find "parenting" unaesthetic, and I don't use. Especially in the context of "parenting skills". For much the same reason I'm happy to show a kid how to juggle but I dont run circus skills workshops. But I digress.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 09:20 AM

Perhaps they were worried the particpant was going to "meddle" with the event? I can't believe anyone would try to verb "medal". ;>)

So, what, you go through your life ribboning and medaling and prizing and certificating and diploming, and what does it get you? A second rate piece of ideational equipment, is what!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Sooz
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 11:34 AM

And another one - a colleague said to me "I've been tasked to pick something up on my way to the station". Double ouch for two new ones in one day!

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 11:42 AM

To task and be tasked is pretty standardized jargon in the US Navy and Army circles. The slang for it is getting a "tasker". I don't know when this crept into usage -- they use the word task for any sort of assignment -- but at least they're cleaving to the Anglo-Saxon!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 01:07 PM

Does anyone else cringe at the use of 'grow' the economy? Maybe I just never noticed it before. We don't say 'grow the garden', why do we want to grow the economy? I suppose it's not a new phrase but it seems I hear it all the time now.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: clueless don
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 04:49 PM

Susanl (posting 09 Mar 03 - 04:36 AM), you decried "apostrophes being used for plural when they only belong to the possessive (e.g. CD's for sale)." I mostly agree with you, but might there be exceptions? For example, suppose you had a word in which the lower-case letter "a" occurred five times. Which would be correct

There are five as in the word

There are five a's in the word

[And, no - for the purpose of this example, you are not allowed to change the construction and say "The letter 'a' occurs five times in the word."]

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Deda
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 05:16 PM

Amos and I have been sibling all our lives. Well, all of mine, anyway.

Kinko's has a dreadful commercial which touts itself as "the new way to office." Blech.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: MartinRyan
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 05:36 PM

All this talk of nouns reminds me: The Irish Times , which is the nearest we have to a decent newspaper, recently had an article on a gentleman whom they described as " the renouned author"!

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 09:11 PM

Ah, but clueless don, you are indeed allowed to rephrase the statement! Just as one does as needed in a song or poem or an essay... Besides which, 'The letter 'a' occurs five times in the word' is a better sentence.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 10:08 PM

I think the use of an apostrophe before the pluralizing "s" is acceptable usage where the resultant typogroaphy would otherwise be obscure or ambiguous (as in the example of the five A's).   The problem arises when those who do not care to assimilate the subtleties of the English rule set choose to abuse it instead, creating bastard plurals like monkey's. :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 10:25 PM

Oh, and Deda thanks for all the good sibling. You give good sib!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Michael
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 05:38 PM

As in 'To verb a noun'

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 09:25 PM

"Go verb thyself, and the gerund you rode in on," she replied nounfully...

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 12:13 PM

Ebbie said: Ah, but clueless don, you are indeed allowed to rephrase the statement! Just as one does as needed in a song or poem or an essay... Besides which, 'The letter 'a' occurs five times in the
word' is a better sentence.

As (not A's) a court reporter, I write down and later transcribe the language of live speakers, and they choose the sentence structure; my function is only to present their speech in the most readable form I can. And if refers to sets of plural A's, that's the appropriate way to do it. I don't have the luxury of recasting the sentence.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 12:14 PM

"if the speaker refers"

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: David Ingerson
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 01:02 PM

I don't have time to read more than the first few posts right now so excuse me if this has already been mentioned. In the mountaineering community the use of "summit" as a verb is practically universal and it's my impression that it has been used that way for a long time. I resist the unnecessary verbifaction of nouns, but this one seemed apt and certainly more economical than saying "reached the summit". Besides, it distinguishes those who can claim to have "climbed the mountain" when they reached only the false summit or were not able to scale the final pinnicle from those who actually summited.

On the other hand, The American Heritage Dictionary, I was surprised to find, listed summit only as a noun.

Slán,

David

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,joe
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 03:53 PM

hmm. whom to summi; or su'mit to.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 04:06 PM

Well, since we are now in the age where Newspeak and Newhistory rule, let us propose that the verb "to summit" has an honorable etymology from an ancient Latin verb,summere, originally meaning to successfully wrestle something or someone to defeat.

The first person singular of which, oddly enough, was always spelled sumo.

Summamos, amigos!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 04:08 PM

Bush, Blair, most recently summited with the Spanish and Portuguese in the Azores. This use appeared in the 1970s.
Dictionaries often miss usages by groups such as mountaineers, like summit (verb) in mountain-climbing. The Oxford English Dictionary doesn't have it either, but, along with the Webster's Collegiate, it does have the one about leaders summiting. The latter also has "summiteering."

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 05:57 PM

If I were told I was to learn "circus skills" and it turned out just to mean juggling, I'd feel I'd been cheated. I'd expect it to cover tightrope-walking and fire-eating and if possible lion-tamimg. (Though these days that's probably banned.)

But "tasks" as a verb is hardly a new word - "He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it." (Moby Dick, Chapter 36.) I wouldn't scruple to use it.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,NightWing at Work
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 08:06 PM

Surprised no one's hit this one yet.

Don't we all mudcat a lot?

BB,

NightWing

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 09:43 PM

I can show you how the verb "to mudcat" has a root which was, originally, Grick! Pass the Windex!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 10:06 PM

To task someone (put someone to a job) is 16th century or older (OED).
To task (to tax) is even older. Use of a word as both noun and verb seems to be a function of the English language, and part of reason that it is the most compehensive language on earth.
Sometimes the meaning changes. We eat beef or skin a beef, but we beef about things or we beef up our forces.

Was looking up the words to an old song today- "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground."

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 10:34 PM

We're tenting tonight, on the old camp ground
Give us a song to cheer
Our weary hearts, a song of home
And those we love so dear....

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 06:07 AM

I'm glad Dave Ingerson put the mountaineering perspective. Last time I visited Snowdon I failed to summit it, I nearly reached the summit, but I had already utilised my reserves of stamina. Clearly I peaked too soon.

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 08:13 AM

What? You peaked instead of summiting? I say, old top -- no peaking!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 09:09 AM

I haven't summitted recently, but I did bottom while driving over a sleeping policeman yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: JennyO
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 10:29 AM

My friend, Sandra in Sydney, often asks me if I am mudcatting tonight, and of course I usually say yes.

Yesterday, an anti-war protester managed to "summit" one of the sails of the Opera House and paint a bright red "no war" on it. Today, on the news, they showed a bunch of guys up there trying to wash it off - not very successfully. The reporter was heard to say that the protester "graffitied" the Opera House.

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 05:47 PM

Or possibly:

We're camping tonight, on the old tent ground...

The best new words always seem to turn out to be old words after all.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 08:36 PM

How camp of you, Kevin!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 08:57 PM

I guess Nigel destaminated. Or mountained out.
Saw the pictures of the Opera House- the protester did a nice neat job! Undoubtedly readable on spy satellite photos.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 11:08 AM

In last Sunday's paper, a Microsoft exec. talking about their move away from their use of "dot Net" as a product identifier (my emphasis):

"We have moved away from using .Net as a versioning moniker to indicate that a particular product is a .Net product, ...."

Did he make that up?

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 11:34 AM

No -- "versioning" is a common parlance in software circles where it is very important to keep track of which version of many files are compiled into which version of a build. It's a whole professional subculture. It's shorthand for "tracking the versions of files". But the way he is using it in the quote above is quite impenetrable.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 12:17 PM

Versioning- listing all the different versions of a folk song.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 04:30 PM

To the tune of "Happy Wanderer"

I love to go a'versioning
To every pub I know,
And as I go, I love to sing,
Each version as it flows.

Cho: Val da ree, Val da rah
Val da ree, Val da rah ha ha ha ha ha
Val da ree, Val da rah
Each version as it flows.

etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 02:18 PM

This quote:

"Call me a pedant but medically what you describe is vasectomy because it is the vas deferens that is cut. Vas is a vessel (as in tube) and can be described as a duct"

really made a vas deferens in my life. Thank you!

Also -- why isn't anyone posting the Bushisms, like "don't misunderestimate me..."

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Amos
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 02:21 PM

That's a form of de-duction, isn't it?

There are several threads of Bushwah-isms on the backtrack, PDC -- just put Bush into the display filter and set it for a year and you'll see 'em.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 03:35 PM

I'm sorry -- ban me if you want to, but I HAVE to do this here, as this thread is about language.

Tony Blair is visiting an Edinburgh hospital. He enters a ward full of patients with no obvious sign of injury or illness and greets one.

The patient replies: "Fair fa your honest sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin race, Aboon them a you take your place, Painch, tripe or thairm, As langs my airm."

Blair is confused, so he just grins and moves on to the next patient.

The patient responds: "Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, So let the Lord be thankit."

Even more confused, and his grin now rictus-like, the PM moves on to the next patient, who immediately begins to chant: "Wee sleekit, cowerin, timrous beasty, Thou needna start awa sae hastie, Wi bickering brattle."

Now seriously troubled, Blair turns to the accompanying doctor and asks "What kind of facility is this? A mental ward?"

"No", replies the doctor. "This is the serious Burns unit."

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 03:48 PM

Oh, pdc!!! That's BRILL! My dad will love it!

You'd probably like these old threads:

Colloquialims - Post 'Em & Define 'em!,

Colloquialisms II,

and, Colloquialisms III

Subject: RE: BS: Nouns as Verbs: 'to summit Everest'
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 05:17 AM

The man who first (or second, they won't say) summitted Everest could turn a phrase.
"Well, we knocked the bastard off!"
What Tensing said is not recorded.
At risk of thread creep, is it only in NZ here that they have started to pronounce an E between a W and N? Growen, sowen, clowen, and even lowen for lone.