Do you remember a time when nouns were nouns and verbs were verbs? Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. When I was growing up, my school teachers would assign me homework from my "text" which meant my textbook (noun). However, if a teacher were to say "text" in our day, immediately a verb comes to mind. We hear things like: "Oh, I will text you later today" or "This weird person keeps texting me." In fact, I heard a joke, and no offense to you spanish speakers out there, but the basis of the joke was a spanish kid in an elementary classroom. He was asked to use an english word, Texas, in a sentence. The hispanic kid responds by saying "My best fren always texas me when I am busy." When did the word "text" become a verb? (In fact, Lyndsay was just watching the Ellen Degeneres (sp?) show on TV and there was a kid jumping on a pogo stick. Lyndsay said, "He just pumped up a basketball while he was pogo-sticking.") Not convinced? Try these on for size:
When taking pictures: "Oh, it's okay, we can just Photoshop that out."
When making copies: "Will you go xerox this?"
In the workplace: "Will you e-mail me the results?"
Right now: "What are you doing?" "Oh, just blogging."
Now, there may be some of you who read those sentences and thought: "Wait, what's wrong with them?" If you are confused, I would recommend that you either take an english class, or live in your ignorant bliss! (I would choose the latter of the two because it contains the word "bliss" and you won't have to do any homework!)
So, the truth of the matter is that I am right there with y'all in the usage of these nouns....verbs...whatever. The best part is that I am pretty sure, within the next couple of years, "texting" will be listed in the english dictionary as a verb. If that is the case, I want to start my own noun revolution! I want to start using the word "economics" as a verb. You know,
"Dude! You just got economicsed hard core!"
"Will you economics me when you are finished?"
"The other night, we economicsed! It was just about the best thing I have done in my life!"
I am pretty sure that some of those sound like I am saying something I am not (especially that last one! YIKES!), but the truth is, I am the one making the noun into a verb so it can mean anything I want! So, in the near future when you start hearing people use the word "economics"as a verb, you will know that I was the one that started it! And maybe you can be part of the revolution too! You know, "Will you give all you can give so that [my revolution] may advance? Some will live and some will die, will you stand up and take the chance?" That kind of stuff. (That was for you, Lyndsay.) :)
4 comments:
I LOVE this post. It's sooo true!! And, by the way, I thought the joke about the hispanic kid misunderstanding the word Texas was so funny, so I told it to my roommates...it definitely wasn't as funny to them as it was to me! :)
And then there is this good one, "My mom just guilt-tripped me." What about the Budge Family one, "Verses", as in Spy vs. Spy, except you kids use it as a verb, as in "Nathanael versed me in Nintendo, and I won!" You can also go the other way.... "Ownage!"
Oh, and who can forget the oft-used "I just googled it!"
Isn't functional shift fun!? I especially like the example of google. (Like you brought up) It's a made-up word which now has a funtional shift to "I'll google it." Google's probably been added to the dictionary now, but you know what I mean. Verbing and nominalization. YAHOO! And mom - I think you mean "verted."
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