Off topic: "Word a Day" Mailing List Funnies Thread poster: Taylor Kirk
| Taylor Kirk United States Local time: 20:51 Portuguese to English + ...
Howdy All, My mom is on the mailing list for one "Word a Day" and she forwards me funny comments like these. If anyone has already seen them I apologize. For the record, my favorite verbifications are: to Swift Boat, to railroad, and to punk! The creator of Calvin and Hobbes once said "Verbing weirds language." Taylor From: <... See more Howdy All, My mom is on the mailing list for one "Word a Day" and she forwards me funny comments like these. If anyone has already seen them I apologize. For the record, my favorite verbifications are: to Swift Boat, to railroad, and to punk! The creator of Calvin and Hobbes once said "Verbing weirds language." Taylor From: http://wordsmith.org/words/suspire.html Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--suspire I am currently studying Mandarin in Beijing, and just this morning a Brazilian colleague asked what the verb offspring of dirt was. With my English worsening by the day (as my Mandarin improves by the night) I was quick to respond "dirtify" -- which is even more complicated than "to dirty" (this came to me only hours later.) It seems I *verbify* nouns in moments of desperation, when my brain knows quite well that the word does not exist, but is equally unwilling to cooperate and produce the right word! Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--extirpate Good old Adolf! After the German bombers completely eradicated Coventry, UK, Hitler coined a new word for "extirpate" -- Koventrier: To Coventry. He then broadcast to the English people that Germany would erase all their cities. I can still hear the roars of approval from the gathered crowds. Subject: Verbification A word in fairly common use, at least in these parts and particularly in the school district, is "certificated". It seems to mean the same thing as "certified", but perhaps I'm missing a subtle distinction. Can it be that a body certifies a person's fitness to teach, or perform some other certifiable function -- that is, vouches for that person if anyone asks -- but certificates that person when it actually issues the certificate? I can but marvel. Subject: Verbing! It goes on in all its macabre glory, making us squirm with outraged delight. This is going to be a hot topic. My current "favourite" business concoction is laddered, but sportscasters have some exquisite examples of blatant verbing: medalled, podiumed, and personal-bested (or P-B-ed, for an even more disgusting alternative). Then the military have their say with ruggedized and adjacentized. For a switch on verb misuse, NASA are now able to orbit a satellite, a manoeuvre magically contravening Newton's laws. ▲ Collapse | | | Taylor Kirk United States Local time: 20:51 Portuguese to English + ... TOPIC STARTER Are these considered verbifications? | Apr 30, 2008 |
On the same note, here in Houston we have the phrase "to pull an Enron". I was wondering, would this only be considered a verbification if we said "to Enron"? If so I'm going to keep using that until it catches on and makes it into the dictionary. He he. | | | Nicole Schnell United States Local time: 18:51 English to German + ... In memoriam | Taylor Kirk United States Local time: 20:51 Portuguese to English + ... TOPIC STARTER
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Nicole Schnell United States Local time: 18:51 English to German + ... In memoriam |
I've noticed that President George W. Bush is particularly adept at verbificating. Jenny P.S. I once saw a clip on TV in which he said "Democracy is the misrepresentation of the people". Well, he should know. I've never noticed anyone else picking up on that particular gem.
[Edited at 2008-05-01 08:26] | | | Taylor Kirk United States Local time: 20:51 Portuguese to English + ... TOPIC STARTER
He has contributed greatly to cultural heritage. I would like to have it known that he was born in Connecticut, making him ineligible for Texan citizenship as per the Texas Constitution, even though he was accidentally voted into office as governor awhile back. Twice. Ergo he has contributed to Connecticut's cultural heritage and is not a recognized Texan. Enjoy these gems: VERBS to misunderestimate to hold an ally hostile to put food on one's family to g... See more He has contributed greatly to cultural heritage. I would like to have it known that he was born in Connecticut, making him ineligible for Texan citizenship as per the Texas Constitution, even though he was accidentally voted into office as governor awhile back. Twice. Ergo he has contributed to Connecticut's cultural heritage and is not a recognized Texan. Enjoy these gems: VERBS to misunderestimate to hold an ally hostile to put food on one's family to get to the bottom of an answer to preserve something for one's predecessor to succeed with success to ooch along to use the Google on the Internets to think beyond the immediate to illegally violate a law to sleep on the soil of a friend to catapult propaganda to predecease ADVERBS subliminally Hispanically NOUNS decider chicken-plucking factory strategery ride-herd suicider uninalienable rights weapons-of-mass-destruction-related-activities subsidation Greecians arbolist cell-phone vampire (my favorite!) ▲ Collapse | | | Jack Doughty United Kingdom Local time: 02:51 Russian to English + ... In memoriam
One of my pet aversions. Verb put becomes noun input, meaning what is put in, but in computerspeak, information is inputted rather than put in. | |
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NancyLynn Canada Local time: 21:51 Member (2002) French to English + ... Moderator of this forum
A long time ago (I was still a child) I read in Reader's Digest's Points to Ponder a remark sent in by a reader: I think people who use words like input shold upshut. Nancy | | | Paul Dixon Brazil Local time: 22:51 Portuguese to English + ...
Three here from Brazil: despedeficar (to depediefy) = to convert a file from PDF into another format. (This word, by the way, is pronounced /dee - pee - de - eff -eye/) googlificação (googlification) = putting a site on Google. desgooglificado (degooglified) = a site that is not on Google. | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » "Word a Day" Mailing List Funnies Anycount & Translation Office 3000 | Translation Office 3000
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