I know you're all waiting breathlessly for a sock post, but in the meantime, allow me to complain.
There are some nouns that just shouldn't try to be verbs. Some have slipped in and are now accepted, but we have to draw the line somewhere. (For example, to table something seems to be legit. But you wouldn't desk something. Yet.)
Top of my list is "journal," i.e. to journal. Just typing that makes me itchy. I see wall hangings, a scented candle, new age music in the background and someone writing endlessly about nothing. (Unlike to blog which is perfectly acceptable.)
MyBigBro mentioned one he doesn't like: to gift. Actually I think there's a nuance there versus "to give," but I can't put my finger on it.
How about to parent? I don't know how to parent. I do know how to nag, cuddle, nurture, lecture, feed, support and yell a lot, though.
I can accept to medal and to impact. After all, I'm in advertising, where we concept regularly. To concept an ad is not really anything like conceiving. It's less physical, for one thing.Of course, we also wordsmith a lot.
And then there's dialoguing. This kind of fits with the crowd who journal and parent.
This brings up the old story about xeroxing stuff with a small x, but that one has kind of escaped Xerox's control. But I think Google likes the verb to google - I would if I were them.
When we worked on cell phones, Sony-Ericsson was attempting to verbify their logo, as follows:
as Logoblink.com shows it.
(I can't remember what they called that - the orb? the sphere? ) It was awkward.
As for me, I think verbing certain nouns garbages up the language. Really. So let's refusal it.
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