Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1887 — Making Verbs of Nouns. [ARTICLE]

Making Verbs of Nouns.

The tendency of American newspapers to take unwarrantable lihert es with certain nouns is one of the most unsatisfactory features of contemporary journalism. To turn a defenseless noun into an aggressive verb is an act as lawless as it is unpunishable. When a reporter asserts that “John Smith suicided” he makes his meaning clear, but lie nerves of those conservatives who' bftfee their English on dictionary precedent. “Interview” used as a verb is another outcome of journalistic independence. But even the two words cited are by no means the most striking illustrations of the tendency referred to. A Western paper says that one of its subscribers “Thanksgave” at home. Shades of Noah Webster, what a word! It is on a par with another provincialism which sometimes shocks the nerves in such a sentence as the following: “James X and his brother Sundayed in town.” The list of these vagabond verbs might be indefinitely extended, but the abovo will suffice., It seems to be a characteristic of our people to take the shortest road to the goal of their desires. The process of turning nouns into verbs is one of the most effective methods of making one word serve the purpose of two or three. But is elegance to be sacrificed for so petty an object ?