Verbed Nouns, Nouned Verbs,
and other interesting creatures
Here's a fun submission on verbs sent to Words Matter by Howard Sprenger of IBM, UK.
Verbing the Noun
The Foothills Of Mount Verbation
- switch
- click
- light
- hand
- hammer
The Verbaceous Border
- picture
- voice
- host
- chair
Poetic Interlude
- shoulder
- thumb
- nose
- eye
- pen
The Heights Of Verbiage
- bin
- outline
- action
- exit
- theme - "This is a themed restaurant."
- cursor
- input
- interface
Verboten
- rightsize/downsize/upsize
- leverage - "We must leverage our position in the market."
Nouning The Verb
Of High Renoun
- push/pull
- a push (or a pull)
- bell-push
- the earth's pull
- buy
- a buy (?)
- "A good buy."
- "This week's best buy."
Maybe Noun Then
- logon/off - "...force a logoff..."
- edit/read/write/erase
- "...make a few edits..."
- "I did a write to the file."
Noun But The Brave
- spend - "This year's spend..."
Conclusions
Not all are bad, but all are suspect.
It's a matter of personal preference...but preference is NOT unimportant.
Be aware of what your reader might think of your use of language.
Howard Sprenger
Information Planner, IBM United Kingdom Laboratories
Thank you for visiting WordsMatter.softville.com
— Bob Ray