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.

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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.

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.

I’ve heard this usage several times.

Just don’t call the practice of using the word “adult” as a verb “adultery.”

We normally expect adjectives to have a noun that they refer to; however, some adjectives get their noun from the context, and we are expected to supply it ourselves. I recommend that you supply the noun anyway, particularly when you write expositorily (when you’re explaining something). In English, using “many” without its noun assumes you’re referring to people. Sentences such as these are taken to refer to people:

How many died in the hurricane?
How many came to your party?

But we use the noun when we’re not referring to people:

So, pardner, how many head of cattle yeh got out back?
How many pages in your term paper?

So I suppose these guys have a point. 

So put in the noun!