Brigid Daull Brockway is technically a writer

Brigid Daull Brockway is technically a writer

A blog about words, wordplay, and etymology, with slightly more than occasional political rants.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

I'm so adjective I verb my nouns


Dude, I love verbing. I don't know what people have against it. It's actually quite efficient, actually. Rather than say "Look it up on Google," you can just say "Google it." Obviously, as a technical writer, I'm overly partial to using as few words as possible, but come on. "I'll Google it." It just sounds cooler.
So here are some of my favorite verbed nouns:

  • Ninja: From online gaming, to "ninja" someone's loot is to hang out while someone another player battles, then run over and take the spoils of the battle. "Dude, I just ninja'ed your loot. Pwned"
  • Gaming: Oh, we forget "game" used to only be a noun. Now, "My husband and I got divorced because he loved playing Dungeons and Dragons more than sex" is "My husband and I got divorced because he loved gaming more than sex. Pwned." 
  • Krogering: If you've ever shared a city with a Kroger, you know that Krogering means "shopping at Kroger." I always used specifically to refer to the act of going to Kroger in the middle of the night because you go to Ohio U and there's nothing the hell else to do. Do people in other cities go "Giant Eagling" or "Acmeing"? Not as far as I know.
  • TiVo: I use TiVo as a verb, and I have a DVR. I DVR'd it doesn't have the same ring.
  • New Guy'ed: This may be specific to my workplace, but if you get New Guy'ed, you've gotten a new computer with all the standard equipment and none of your old settings. Love this one.

4 comments:

Cap'n Ergo "XL+II" Jinglebollocks said...

I'm very pleased that I've gotten Spooky to start saying "pinch" to mean "steal."

Also, I'll have to find an old comic about noun-verbs that you'd like.

And have you noticed that DOG is a noun, verb and adjective?? Fish is a noun-verb and horse is a noun-adjective (with alternative spelling).

But what about CAT? Why is it CAT is only a noun?? Is it because they're so friggin' COOL??

Adam said...

I also love verbing nouns. My current favorite is when someone assholes down the street (or "that guy sure is assholing down the street" - aka driving like an asshole).

Brigid Daull Brockway said...

We can verb "cat." Henceforth, "to cat" will mean "to throw up on a loved one's carpet."

Anonymous said...

My Dog Ate Your Pronouns And He She It Everywhere!

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