"It's beyond obvious that Google's lawyers are fighting a losing battle. And they should relax. Not only is "I googled that hottie" great publicity for the company, but it's fresh and funny and an excellent example of how anthimeria gives English an invigorating slap upside the head. At this very moment, the language is being regenerated with phrases like my bad, verbs like dumb down and weird out and guilt ("Don't guilt me") and even the doubly anthimeric "Pimp My Ride," an MTV series in which a posse of artisans take a run-down jalopy and sleek it up into a studly vehicle containing many square yards of plush velvet and an astonishing number of LCD screens." NYT, 2006
Calvin: I like to verb words. Hobbes: What? Calvin: I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when "access" was a thing? Now it's something you do. It got verbed. . . . Verbing weirds language. Hobbes: Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. (Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes)
"I'll unhair thy head." - Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, II, v.
ReplyDeleteIt’s time we should all have a good sing.
ReplyDelete"It's beyond obvious that Google's lawyers are fighting a losing battle. And they should relax. Not only is "I googled that hottie" great publicity for the company, but it's fresh and funny and an excellent example of how anthimeria gives English an invigorating slap upside the head. At this very moment, the language is being regenerated with phrases like my bad, verbs like dumb down and weird out and guilt ("Don't guilt me") and even the doubly anthimeric "Pimp My Ride," an MTV series in which a posse of artisans take a run-down jalopy and sleek it up into a studly vehicle containing many square yards of plush velvet and an astonishing number of LCD screens." NYT, 2006
ReplyDeleteKing Lear by William Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteAct IV Scene VI
King Lear:
“When the rain came to
wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when
the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there
found ‘em, there I smelt ‘em out.”
Calvin: I like to verb words.
ReplyDeleteHobbes: What?
Calvin: I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when "access" was a thing? Now it's something you do. It got verbed. . . . Verbing weirds language.
Hobbes: Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding.
(Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes)
'I am going in search of a great perhaps." - Rabelais
ReplyDelete