By William Krol
“Verbification” sounds like something hipsters do when they move into a rundown neighborhood, but it’s not. “Verbification” or “verbing a noun” is the process of taking an innocent noun that’s minding its own business quietly expressing itself as an “entity, quality, state, action, or concept” [1] and – bam! – turning it into a verb. This process is also known as “denominalization,” “conversion,” or “zero derivation.”[2]
Although verbing seems like a recent concept – with language purists pointing to it as an example of the destruction of our language thanks to texting, social media, and other forms of electronic communication or as an easy out for lazy writers who can’t think of the right word – it is a centuries-old tradition in English. Even the terms “verbing” and “verbification” are not modern: “verbing” makes its appearance in 1766 and “verbification” in 1871.[3]
That doesn’t mean this process has always been accepted or welcomed. Benjamin Franklin lamented in a letter to Noah Webster (the American spelling reformer of dictionary fame) that the making of nouns into verbs was “awkward and abominable” (then again, Franklin once proposed making substantial changes to the English alphabet).
Certainly, modern communication methods have helped speed up the rate at which the verb form of nouns are accepted into our general vocabulary. “Medal” as a noun first appears around 1578. It took 244 years for it to be used as a verb, when Lord Byron referred to a soldier as being “medalled.”[4] It’s not until the 20th century, however, that the modern usage of “medal” occurs (“he medaled in his event at Olympics”).[5]
In contrast, Google, the search engine, first appeared in 1997. In 2002, the American Dialect Society declared the verb “to google” the most useful word of the year. Four years later, the Oxford English Dictionary made it official: “to google” was a verb; less than 10 years had passed.[6] When was the last time you said, “Let me search Google for the answer”? You didn’t; you googled it.
Other company names have also been turned into verbs. Have you ever xeroxed a report so you could fedex it overnight to your boss? Maybe you’ve gone rollerblading, where you got into an altercation with police and were tasered. Rollerblade® is a brand of inline skates, and Taser® (now Axon) is a company that makes the electroshock weapon used by police.
Sometimes, when words we know as nouns in modern times get verbed, we think they’re wrong. When Facebook started telling people to “friend,” each other, I was annoyed that the perfectly fine noun “friend” was suddenly becoming a verb; surely the correct word was “befriend.” Indignant, I googled “friend as verb” and discovered that this usage dates back more than 800 years.[7]
So, is verbing a bad thing? No. It’s one way our language changes and evolves. However, used in the wrong hands or with the wrong nouns, it should lead to (rightful) scorn. Don’t laptop your complaints to me if I end up mocking you.
William Krol is the communications manager at the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind and America’s VetDogs and a freelance copy editor. He can be reached at wmkrol@yahoo.com. He verbs nouns from time to time.
Sources:
[1] “Noun”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noun
[2] “Conversion (Word Formation)”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(word_formation)
[3] Verbification of the Nation
[4] “Letter CCCCXCI. To Sir Walter Scott.”
http://www.lordbyron.org/monograph.php?doc=ThMoore.1830&select=AD1822.17
[5] “Mind your language”
David Marsh
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/aug/25/opendoor.commentanddebate
[6] “The Basics of Verbing Nouns”
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/the-basics-of-verbing-nouns/
[7] ‘“Friend,” as a Verb, Is 800 Years Old”
Megan Garber
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/friend-as-a-verb-is-800-years-old/278109/
Also:
“You’ve Been Verbed”
Anthony Gardner
https://www.1843magazine.com/content/ideas/anthony-gardner/youve-been-verbed
“What Is Verbing?”
Richard Nordquist
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-verbing-1691035 (accessed October 14, 2017).
