Chiff and Fipple Forums

This is the forum for Traditional STRING Instruments. I haven't seen a single post about twine, for example.

Dale, please give us a new forum for Traditional Stringed Instruments so we can rectify this glaring oversight.

My apologies to all for having offended.

It's ok, Nano. It's like saying ''hammer dulcimer'' instead of ''hammered dulcimer.'' I think we're safe.

As corruptions of the English language go, it isn't as bad as most. My pet peeve (ok, one of many! ) is the transformation of nouns into verbs. I was recently at a meeting where the leader kept saying ''We've been TASKED with . . .'' That one really grates on me for some reason.

Once I had an ole banjo
It was strung with twine
The only song it ever would play
Was Trouble on my Mind.

HDSarah wrote:My pet peeve (ok, one of many! ) is the transformation of nouns into verbs. I was recently at a meeting where the leader kept saying ''We've been TASKED with . . .'' That one really grates on me for some reason.

You'll want to stay away from the Chinese languages, then.

The verbification (I don't dare say "verbing") of nouns is pretty common in English, too, though.

Would you never chair a meeting, table a discussion, fish for your supper, host a party, sandpaper a board, knife a friend in the back, ax a suggestion, dog an enemy, cat around town, worm your way out of a tight spot, vacuum a rug, string popcorn, paper a room, tile a floor, bomb a bunker, ship a package, cart firewood, truck vegetables to market, water a plant, number someone among your friends, finger a squealer, hand someone a napkin, eye a cutie pie, head a group, arm your forces, elbow (or shoulder, or nose) someone aside, book a suspect, tower over a child, lord it over a subordinate, shoe a horse, flour a countertop, light a lamp, gun down a rival, tongue a trumpet, trumpet your name to a crowd, fiddle while Rome burns, needle an opponent, cement a driveway, tar a road, score an opera, frost a cake, sugar your coffee, milk a cow, telephone a friend, poison an enemy, radio for help, skin a deer, ski down a mountain, circle the block, hammer a nail, or nail a board?

What's funny about "task" is that it derives from the Medieval Latin verb taxare, "to tax", so it's actually a noun that is derived from a verb.

Its use to mean "to assign a task to" appears in my 1969 Random House Dictionary of the English Language, so it's not exactly new. This is not to say that the sample you quoted is not obnoxious bureaucratese, just that it's perfectly good English.

(That list was hard to come up with, although any English dictionary will show thousands of words that are both verbs and nouns. My American Heritage seems to show many more nouns derived from verbs than the other way around.)

As long as we're really being OT, now...

All very well and good, dear Darwin (mind you, I agree wholeheartedly), BUT: I give you the nounal (is that a word?) verb "impact". Originally in use especially in dentalese as an intransitive verb, it's now gotten a transitive usage, which was born of businessspeak as lore has it. I think I ought to have removed an "S" from that trio, there. Anyway, whenever I hear something like, "This will impact our sales," or the like, I still get the image of something all jammed together in an ugly fashion and requiring some sort of dire intervention like the Jaws of Life.

I'm getting over it. Sort of.

I just keep reminding myself that that sort of thing is evidence that our language is still alive and dynamic. As are "phat", "bling", and "televangelize".

SteveK wrote:Once I had an ole banjo
It was strung with twine
The only song it ever would play
Was Trouble on my Mind.

I know that tune!!!!!

HDSarah wrote:It's ok, Nano. It's like saying ''hammer dulcimer'' instead of ''hammered dulcimer.'' I think we're safe.

As corruptions of the English language go, it isn't as bad as most. My pet peeve (ok, one of many! ) is the transformation of nouns into verbs. I was recently at a meeting where the leader kept saying ''We've been TASKED with . . .'' That one really grates on me for some reason.

I couldn't agree more.
I'll be sure to write this down while journaling.

Just imagine if I couldn't string my cittern, reed my pipes, or stopper my flute.

I'd just sit here mousing.

Nanohedron wrote:As long as we're really being OT, now...

Not that this particular topic had much hope of a long, fruitful existence...

All very well and good, dear Darwin (mind you, I agree wholeheartedly), BUT: I give you the nounal (is that a word?) verb "impact". Originally in use especially in dentalese as an intransitive verb, it's now gotten a transitive usage, which was born of businessspeak as lore has it. I think I ought to have removed an "S" from that trio, there. Anyway, whenever I hear something like, "This will impact our sales," or the like, I still get the image of something all jammed together in an ugly fashion and requiring some sort of dire intervention like the Jaws of Life.

Well, good old Webster's Ninth gives a date of 1601 for the transitive use of the verb, with one entry being:

    2 a: to have an impact on : to impinge on

On the other hand, the use of "impacted" to refer to teeth only goes back to 1831. (I've been neglecting my little Webster's, not realizing until now that it incuded earliest use dates.)

I'm getting over it. Sort of.

I just keep reminding myself that that sort of thing is evidence that our language is still alive and dynamic. As are "phat", "bling", and "televangelize".

And "hopefully"--but, hopefully, NEVER "irregardless".

Nanohedron wrote:
My apologies to all for having offended.

Nano, y're off topic with that. Take it to the Apologies forum, if you will.

The observations on this thread could be impactful.

Flyingcursor wrote:The observations on this thread could be impactful.

That's irreliphant! Irregardless of the impactfulness or Clouseauesqueness of any such parcieved noshuns, it's cromulence and assal horizontology are strictly based in the principles of Dorkus Malorkus.
According to the book Electromicide For Dummies, this kind of prattle can only embiggen and introubulate the already dangerized knowitallism of you average human ego!
Down with the Knowledgeum!

Darwin wrote: Would you never chair a meeting, table a discussion, fish for your supper, host a party, sandpaper a board, knife a friend in the back, ax a suggestion, dog an enemy, cat around town, worm your way out of a tight spot, vacuum a rug, string popcorn, paper a room, tile a floor, bomb a bunker, ship a package, cart firewood, truck vegetables to market, water a plant, number someone among your friends, finger a squealer, hand someone a napkin, eye a cutie pie, head a group, arm your forces, elbow (or shoulder, or nose) someone aside, book a suspect, tower over a child, lord it over a subordinate, shoe a horse, flour a countertop, light a lamp, gun down a rival, tongue a trumpet, trumpet your name to a crowd, fiddle while Rome burns, needle an opponent, cement a driveway, tar a road, score an opera, frost a cake, sugar your coffee, milk a cow, telephone a friend, poison an enemy, radio for help, skin a deer, ski down a mountain, circle the block, hammer a nail, or nail a board?

I'm floored.

Martin Milner wrote:

Darwin wrote: Would you never chair a meeting, table a discussion, fish for your supper, host a party, sandpaper a board, knife a friend in the back, ax a suggestion, dog an enemy, cat around town, worm your way out of a tight spot, vacuum a rug, string popcorn, paper a room, tile a floor, bomb a bunker, ship a package, cart firewood, truck vegetables to market, water a plant, number someone among your friends, finger a squealer, hand someone a napkin, eye a cutie pie, head a group, arm your forces, elbow (or shoulder, or nose) someone aside, book a suspect, tower over a child, lord it over a subordinate, shoe a horse, flour a countertop, light a lamp, gun down a rival, tongue a trumpet, trumpet your name to a crowd, fiddle while Rome burns, needle an opponent, cement a driveway, tar a road, score an opera, frost a cake, sugar your coffee, milk a cow, telephone a friend, poison an enemy, radio for help, skin a deer, ski down a mountain, circle the block, hammer a nail, or nail a board?

I'm floored.

OK, then go whistle a tune, or tune a whistle, or something.

Darwin wrote:Well, good old Webster's Ninth gives a date of 1601 for the transitive use of the verb, with one entry being:

2 a: to have an impact on : to impinge on

On the other hand, the use of "impacted" to refer to teeth only goes back to 1831. (I've been neglecting my little Webster's, not realizing until now that it incuded earliest use dates.)

My goodness. I honestly never heard the the transitive usage in my day until but some twentyish years ago, and it was decried by many's the anal-retentive Anglophone who bothered to hold it up as an example of The Decay of English. So much for scholarship.

This must have been one of those full-circle things.

*reminds self to Webster first, then blather*