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‘Efforting’ to understand a trend
ChrisCrossing: Column by Chris Rotar, news editor
As a kid, the most important rule I learned in English class, it seemed, was “‘aint’ ain’t a word.”
It’s become clear to me that’s not true. It is a word. Maybe not one you’d prefer your child to use, but a word nonetheless.
Words are what we make of them, right?
At least that seems to be the case with the growing use of nouns as verbs.
You know what I mean. You don’t send a text message on your cell phone — you “text.” Many of you “game,” video or otherwise.
I’m still trying to get a handle on this, but I do have a professional point of reference.
Back when I was just getting started in journalism, one of the oddest rules I learned was not to use “host” as a verb. You were supposed to write, for example, “The Broncos ‘played host’ to the Raiders.” I believe the rules on this have been relaxed in recent years, which is great considering I’ve never played host to anything but have, on occasion, hosted things.
So that’s progress. But mostly, we’re going in the wrong direction with this verb explosion.
I recently read that mountain climbers can “summit” a peak. People whose hobby is putting together scrapbooks are now “scrapbooking.” I guess when I was a youngster, I “baseball carded.”
While I’m busy making an effort to accomplish something, there are a host of other folks who are “efforting” to get things done. Many of these people also are trying to help their cause by “blogging” and “tweeting.”
While I’m missing my favorite TV show, others “DVR” theirs.
I guess there is a certain economy of language with this trend, and maybe these new-age verbs just sound cool. It could be that they’re a by-product of modern technology or modern youths.
But I say it ain’t right. As someone who is about halfway between high school graduation and AARP membership, I have a decent understanding of high-tech and old guard. I own an XBox 360, but I play video games on it; I don’t “game.”
In college, I majored in mass communications, so if this trend bothers me, how must all of you English majors out there feel?
Well, this would ideally be the point at which I would insert a quote from an area English teacher, in order to give the column a local angle, or “localize” it, as we say in the business. Sorry, there’s a foot of snow on the ground as I write this and schools are closed — no doubt giving kids ample time to contemplate new objects they can turn into action words.
Imagine it’s dinner time at the Smith residence.
“Awww, Mom, I can’t believe we’re meatloafing again tonight! I was really hoping we could quesadilla.”
Where does it end?
The Web is full of commentary on this subject, with plenty of others outraged by this mockery of the language. What you can do is type “nouns used as verbs” into an online search engine.
Better yet, you can Google it.
Chris Rotar is a news editor for Colorado Community Newspapers.
It’s become clear to me that’s not true. It is a word. Maybe not one you’d prefer your child to use, but a word nonetheless.
Words are what we make of them, right?
At least that seems to be the case with the growing use of nouns as verbs.
You know what I mean. You don’t send a text message on your cell phone — you “text.” Many of you “game,” video or otherwise.
I’m still trying to get a handle on this, but I do have a professional point of reference.
Back when I was just getting started in journalism, one of the oddest rules I learned was not to use “host” as a verb. You were supposed to write, for example, “The Broncos ‘played host’ to the Raiders.” I believe the rules on this have been relaxed in recent years, which is great considering I’ve never played host to anything but have, on occasion, hosted things.
So that’s progress. But mostly, we’re going in the wrong direction with this verb explosion.
I recently read that mountain climbers can “summit” a peak. People whose hobby is putting together scrapbooks are now “scrapbooking.” I guess when I was a youngster, I “baseball carded.”
While I’m busy making an effort to accomplish something, there are a host of other folks who are “efforting” to get things done. Many of these people also are trying to help their cause by “blogging” and “tweeting.”
While I’m missing my favorite TV show, others “DVR” theirs.
I guess there is a certain economy of language with this trend, and maybe these new-age verbs just sound cool. It could be that they’re a by-product of modern technology or modern youths.
But I say it ain’t right. As someone who is about halfway between high school graduation and AARP membership, I have a decent understanding of high-tech and old guard. I own an XBox 360, but I play video games on it; I don’t “game.”
In college, I majored in mass communications, so if this trend bothers me, how must all of you English majors out there feel?
Well, this would ideally be the point at which I would insert a quote from an area English teacher, in order to give the column a local angle, or “localize” it, as we say in the business. Sorry, there’s a foot of snow on the ground as I write this and schools are closed — no doubt giving kids ample time to contemplate new objects they can turn into action words.
Imagine it’s dinner time at the Smith residence.
“Awww, Mom, I can’t believe we’re meatloafing again tonight! I was really hoping we could quesadilla.”
Where does it end?
The Web is full of commentary on this subject, with plenty of others outraged by this mockery of the language. What you can do is type “nouns used as verbs” into an online search engine.
Better yet, you can Google it.
Chris Rotar is a news editor for Colorado Community Newspapers.
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