Stop verbing things!

29 Responses to Stop verbing things!

1. Katherine Haxton says:

   March 28, 2009 at 7:53 pm

   Oh yeah and you’ll be visioning next, or perhaps incentivizing? I recall certain Canadian politicians were pretty terrible at verbing 🙂
2. Katherine Haxton says:

   March 28, 2009 at 7:54 pm

   Sorry about the double comment, must have been twicing or something…
3. Bob O'Hara says:

   March 28, 2009 at 8:00 pm

   How is “amplify all the way up to eleven”?
4. Cath Ennis says:

   March 28, 2009 at 8:35 pm

   How’s the prototyping going, Katherine?
   Bob, 11 kilobases? Ambitious 😉
5. Kristi Vogel says:

   March 28, 2009 at 8:38 pm

   Blogging?
6. Cath Ennis says:

   March 28, 2009 at 8:47 pm

   From “web logging?” I think that’s OK…
7. Sabbi Lall says:

   March 28, 2009 at 9:05 pm

   Wait- what if when I was PCRing, I was reacting not reactioning (and I just wasn’t clear about my abbreviationing all these years)? :o)
8. Katherine Haxton says:

   March 28, 2009 at 9:05 pm

   well, I’ve been thinking about blue skying instead of blue sky thinking, and joined uping instead of joined up thinking, but at the moment I’m just wine-ing and DVDing.
9. Lee Turnpenny says:

   March 28, 2009 at 9:08 pm

   Aww, come on, Cath. Or the misapplication of verbs. I always think “I’m doing a western…” is a bit, er, non-specific.
10. Cath Ennis says:

    March 28, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    I’ve often wondered whether Ed Southern ever says “I’m doing a me”
11. Stephen Curry says:

    March 29, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    I cannae take it any more, Captain!
    To my mind, there is nothing wrong with nouns becoming into verbs as long as the meaning is clear. OK it may have generated a few cheesy-isms but I have been PCRing since the mid-nineties and have no intention of stopping. Language is a living thing. Are you about to give up kayaking Cath? Or what is the ‘correct’ verb for that? Boating? Paddling? Oh dear, it seems these verbified nouns are hard to get away from…! ;-P
    But don’t take my word for it. Read Mr Fry’s views “here”:http://www.stephenfry.com/blog/2008/11/04/don't-mind-your-language…/ for the voice of authority on these matters (or, better yet, just listen).
12. Richard Wintle says:

    March 29, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    I have to agree in principle with Stephen’s reasoned response about language being dynamic and ‘living’ (although I will still take issue with the street signs one might see in certain parts of the USA, exhorting one to ‘GO SLOW’).
    However, when I read your post initially, I was inwardly applauding. Science itself is (should be?) a language of precision, so describing things accurately, using the appropriate bits of the language provided, should be encouraged.
    That’s my two cents’ worth. I’m off to re-purpose something or other.
13. Jennifer Rohn says:

    March 29, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    I’m with Stephen all the way. Language is for using, and should be as muddy and messy as those toddlers in the Persil adverts. I’m partial to “PCR up” instead of “PCRing”, just because it somehow evokes big, beautiful glowing bands.
14. Russell Turpin says:

    March 29, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    Verbing nouns isn’t bad. It’s their renounification that makes things a bit weird.
15. Cath Ennis says:

    March 29, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    Yeah yeah, language evolves, blah blah blah 😉
    I see your point, and again I agree in principle, but I just find “PCR” very clumsy as a verb. It’s not even any quicker to say than “amplify”. And it’s even worse when it’s written (and peer reviewed, and published).
    During my time in industry I also had way too much exposure to the kind of management speak that Katherine mentioned. In my experience, people use these terms to make themselves sound more intelligent in a situation where they don’t really understand what’s going on.
    And I use “I’m going kayaking” and “I’m going paddling” about equally… and never as often as I would like.
16. Sabbi Lall says:

    March 29, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    I prefer amplify too. “PCR reaction” also bugs me (in the same way the occasional use of APC complex does- stop repeating yourself!), but the “word” PCR has obviously taken on its own life and PC reaction would be confusing…Has kayaking really only been ‘verbed’ recently?
17. Cath Ennis says:

    March 29, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    ATM machine, PIN number…
18. Cristian Bodo says:

    March 29, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    Social scientist have been the absolute masters of verbing for decades. One of my favourite is “problematize” (which describes the act of making something a problem, a most useful ability when you’re looking for a subject for your PhD dissertation)
    You don’t believe me? Go ahead and google it! 😉
19. Cath Ennis says:

    March 30, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    How did they idea that?
20. Cath Ennis says:

    March 31, 2009 at 11:52 pm

    I’ve been thinking more about this, and I think the reason I don’t like “PCR” as a verb is that there was no need for a new word to replace “amplify”, which works just as well in the exact same context. Not to mention the fact that “I polymerase chain reactioned (or even reacted) up a band” just seems so… wrong.
    Other recent (and not so recent) verbings do fulfill an unmet need though. How else would you say that you paddled a kayak? “I propelled my kayak using a paddle”.
21. Cath Ennis says:

    March 31, 2009 at 11:55 pm

    (Premature “submit” alert there).
    So the introduction of the verb “to paddle” streamlined the sentence without directly replacing another perfectly good word.
22. Richard Wintle says:

    April 1, 2009 at 2:22 am

    Now you’re just confusticating things.
23. Caryn Shechtman says:

    April 1, 2009 at 9:28 pm

    Inspired by Matt’s call for slogans for the atheist bus…
24. Cath Ennis says:

    April 1, 2009 at 9:29 pm

    ROFL!
    But should it maybe say “Scientists wordify, we just can’t help it?”
25. steffi suhr says:

    April 2, 2009 at 4:21 am

    I just saw this on a blog I found recently… I love the headline examples.
26. Cath Ennis says:

    April 2, 2009 at 11:32 pm

    That’s excellent! Thanks Steffi!
27. Caryn Shechtman says:

    April 4, 2009 at 2:07 am

    Wordify, eh? That makes me think what a game of scientist scrabble would be like. The whole not in the dictionary thing would be out the window.
28. Charles Darwin says:

    April 9, 2009 at 11:02 am

    A sherrying in your direction.
29. Cath Ennis says:

    April 10, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    Ta Chuck

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