Hmm. I Don’t Think a Noun Form Exists for this One
Here’s the comic:
https://www.gocomics.com/agnes/2020/07/26
“Addled” is an adjective. For that matter, you can’t go up to the front of the room and addle, either, so I don’t see a verb form, either.
What do you think?
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Nouns As Verbs
Special because in this case all the nouns are proper nouns.
In case you don’t know, the character on the right is named “Rat.” And the technical name for this is “back-formation.”
So how’s your name? Could it be a verb? Mention it in the comments.
I Had Forgotten this Word
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:
Sorry, no comic today.
Verbing a Noun Comic
Every now and then I mention this habit of our English language taking nouns and making them into verbs. Some are so common we don’t even think about them. “Race,” for example, and “cup,” and “jump” to mention only three. In fact, “mention” is another example!
Some of these, however, we curmudgeons disapprove of, and this comic is about one of them.
We already have a perfectly good verb to use in this situation. it’s “give.”
Harrumpf.
Another Verbed Noun
I’ve heard this usage several times.
Just don’t call the practice of using the word “adult” as a verb “adultery.”
