I love the verbing of words; I think it's fun.
(OK, OK, I won't do it "in print," but I still think it's fun.)
I haven't decided how I feel about the nouning of words. I don't love it when there already exists a decent and useful noun, but sometimes it's fun.
I hadn't spotted this, but Slate has: using the verb "fail" as a noun: "an epic fail" instead of "an epic failure."
GOODBYE, SCHADENFREUDE; HELLO, FAIL. By Christopher Beam
What do you think?
3 comments:
"In my exams I got three passes and three fails" – doesn't sound too odd to me...
Ah--so we're just now catching up, on this side of the ocean?
"fail" was a noun until the 1800s, and is still found in the phrase "without fail". It comes from Old French "faile", which was nounified from the verb "faillir". For instance
How grounded hee his Title to the Crowne Vpon our faile. - Henry VIII I.ii
Presumably this recent nounification of "fail" is a new innovation and not a continuation of the older one.
Ask, invite, command, meld and request are other examples of verbs that were later nounified.
Post a Comment