I Had Forgotten this Word

rogersgeorge on December 6th, 2019

This post is mainly for the language geeks among us. I have occasionally used the expression “verbing a noun” (use the search box in the upper right corner), mainly because I had seen that usage, and had forgotten that we have a technical word for that! Backformation. In fact, to use “verb” as a verb is example of backformation. But there’s more to it than that.

If you’re interested, here’s a pretty good article about backformation:

https://curiosity.com/topics/backformation-can-make-you-invent-new-words-without-realizing-it-curiosity

Sorry, no comic today.

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Rogers George has been a technical writer for more than 20 years. He has written on subjects as diverse as outhouse assembly, restaurant reviews, software, information security, and scientific equipment. He has his own writing consultancy and is always happy to discuss writing and grammar. Drop him a line at curmudgeon@writing-rag.com.

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