Re: variant of "Words that should never be uttered or documented..."

Subject: Re: variant of "Words that should never be uttered or documented..."
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 09:39:40 -0700


Steven Brown wrote:

Without further study, I suspect the misuse of nouns
as verbs is, as someone else said, an attempt to be
perceived as intelligent.

Unusual uses are often ugly and sometimes funny. However, don't forget that they can also be creative coinings.

Thomas Hardy, for example, was often criticized for his unusual uses of words ("smalled by distance" for example).His reply was usually that there wasn't any other way to express what he wanted to say, but the criticism bothered him. Later in life, he decided to be cautious about his use of words and consulted the Oxford English Dictionary to be sure about his diction. Many times, he found one of his earlier works cited as the first example of a usage.

Personally, I look at the ugly and funny coinings as the price we pay for having a language that's alive and growing.

--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177

"They had taught me about power and the abuse of power. Evil would always come to me disguised in systems and dignified by law."
-Pat Conroy, "The Lords of Discipline"


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References:
Re: variant of "Words that should never be uttered or documented...": From: Steven Brown

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