On Sat, 15 Feb 1997, Irene Wanner wrote:

> I think we ought to boycott Kinko's, whose motto--The new way to
> office--puts a whole new generation of bad English before TV-watching kids
> (not to mention the larger versions).

Turning nouns into verbs is a way of calling attention to something, an
attempt to raise it to a higher level of importance in the public eye. A
promotional activity, in other words. Some of these neologisms stick,
some don't. "To bird" is one that did. But only recently, and far from
universally as yet. Check all but the newest dictionaries and you won't
find the definition of "to bird" that we "birders" have adopted. And
we've been boycotted, too. Can you imagine, some still call us
birdwatchers, in linguistic defiance of the enhanced status we so
obviously deserve! How retro! How deflating! What gall!

To put language mangling in perspective: if there are those who attach a
higher importance to a trip to a copy center than to the nearest wetland
with a nature trail, let them go officing! Out of sheer perversity I'll
just keep on calling them a bunch of lowly Xeroxers (great verb, that).
Gotta keep 'em in their places. What can they do to me?

Universal principle in all this? We mangle most what we esteem
best. Birding, anybody?


Hal Opperman
Medina, WA
halop at u.washington.edu
phone 206-635-0503