verbing

A type of conversion (or functional shift) in which a noun is used as a verb or a verbal. Contrast with nominalization. See also: What Is Verbing?

Examples and Observations:

• "Carol Burnett, no doubt about it, is a verb--transitive, active, reciprocal, irregular. To burnett is to affirm, to make funny, to dance, sing, cry, mug and gambol about in extravagant motion."
  (Cyclops, "Ode to a Very Active Verb." Life magazine, April 2, 1971)



• "Through the ages, language mavens have deplored the way English speakers convert nouns into verbs. The following verbs have all been denounced in this century:

  to caveat, to nuance, to dialogue, to parent, to input, to access, to showcase, to intrigue, to impact, to host, to chair, to progress, to contact

  In fact, easy conversion of nouns to verbs has been part of English grammar for centuries; it is one of the processes that make English English. I have estimated that about a fifth of all English verbs were originally nouns. . . .
  
  "If you make up a new verb based on a noun, like someone's name, it is always regular, even if the new verb sounds the same as an existing verb that is irregular. (For example, Mae Jemison, the beautiful black female astronaut, out Sally-Rided Sally Ride, not out Sally-Rode Sally Ride)."
  (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct. Morrow, 1994)



• "[Gordon] Brown's idea of thoroughly dialoguing British constitutional reforms before they are enacted is a communitarian idea at its best."
  (Amitai Etzioni, "Two Cheers for Gordon." The Guardian, Oct. 5, 2007)



• "It's primarily the newer instances of verbing that grate, and perhaps that's because they're associated with the newer people (the Nouvelles) who tend to be 'early adopters' of phrases like liaisoning, Let's calendar that! or, as some news people say, efforting."
  (Leslie Savan, Slam Dunks and No-Brainers. Knopf, 2005)