Hatrack River Forum: My eyes! My eyes!: A word-use that should not be born:

This is topic My eyes! My eyes!: A word-use that should not be born: in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

"Online a process for initiating requests."

Online? Online? ONLINE? ONLINE?Online as a verb? Oh my stars, I HATE lazy, meaningless, appalling business-speak!

Posted by Damien (Member # 5611) on :

Good thing you onlined that complaint. >_>

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

*bursts in a splatter of well-punctuated despair*

[ June 11, 2004, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]

Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :

*wails and gnashes teeth*

Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :

ewww... that IS bad...

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I can certainly understand your desire to complaint about it.

Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :

I'm with ya on this one, Kat.
[Angst]

Posted by Sweet William (Member # 5212) on :

So Kat:

Someone actually said out loud "We need to on-line a process for....?"

How completely bizarre. I couldn't agree more. [Smile]

Posted by Ophelia (Member # 653) on :

The linguist in me wants to say it's okay, to be happy about new word use . . . but it can't. Using "online" as a verb . . . I just don't like it.

I think this more than anything else demonstrates why I concentrated in cognitive linguistics and not sociolinguistics.

Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :

I'm willing to bet English isn't the first language of the individual responsible for that horrendous sentance, in which case, I am very willing to allow leeway.

But if the general populace starts talking that way, I'm gonna punch somebody.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I bet English was that person's first language.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

It was an accountant. *weeps*

[ June 11, 2004, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]

Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :

That must have been one wasted college education.

Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :

I'm all for coining new words. I even (you'll probably hate me for this, Jon Boy) don't mind the occasional use of a noun as a verb, depending on the circumstances. But this! Disgusting! *shudders*

Posted by Taalcon (Member # 839) on :

I verb nouns all the time. But mostly in a lighthearted manner, not for use in official business communiques.

Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :

I'm sure some people once felt that way about "access."

"Remember when 'access' was a THING? Now it's something you DO. It got verbed." - Calvin & Hobbes

Posted by A Rat Named Dog (Member # 699) on :

Man, I was already fed up with people using "online" as a noun. As in, "Do you have online? I got online the other day. Online is great." Now, a verb. Ugh.

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

Did you mean "born," "borne," or both? [Smile]

Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :

I really like the ability to do this in English. I know it's horrible in bad businessspeak documents, but it's fun in real speech. In fact, I've been onlining intransitively nearly every night for years. I never onlined anything transitively before, but possibly only because I don't have a web page up. [Smile]

I'm afraid I'm guilty of doing this for fun all the time. And I think it makes English really flexible and powerful and terse.

When my oldest brother was small he liked to door his oreos. To this day I enjoy dooring my oreos. (When I get to eat oreos, that is.)

Since your job is fixing people's bad writing, then I know you will de-online this guy's prose <laughs> and it will read much better, I'm sure. But anyway, we'll still have the propensity in English to verb nouns and noun verbs. And for that I am glad. Now I've got to go to work to work. I'll be back later on tonight to online some more. [Smile]

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

I won't online it, but if you'd like I can File Transfer Protocol it, email it, or even Instant Message it to you.

Maybe we should form a new acronym: OL. "Go ahead and OL that. I'll download it later."

In the words of the great Homer Simpson: "The Internet! They have that on computers now?"

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I too verb nouns for fun. But I actually enjoy the reverse process more . . . my father and I routinely crack each other up with our speakage.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

Tom:

[Smile]

I did think of both. It's too bad they are spelled differently, for I had to choose one. It works better as a spoken (wailed) lament.

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

Isn't on-line always supposed to be hyphenated too? Or has it gone beyond that to be its own word now?

Farmgirl

Posted by Taalcon (Member # 839) on :

AFR does make a point - it's been accepted with Email, FTP, and AIM.

And I will unashamedly email a document, FTP a website, and AIM you later tonight.

It's part of the English language, like it or not.

To be honest, the most annoying use of the term 'online' is by people who say, "I'm going to go stand online at the deli."

You don't stand ON line, you stand IN line.

Silly people.

To quote High Fidelity, "You guys are snobs."

[Wink]

[ June 11, 2004, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: Taalcon ]

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

I think part of the reason this bothers me so much is because it is unspecific. Email as a verb is obvious - it means to send an electronic letter, just like to mail means to send a letter through the traditional method.

Online doesn't really explain what he means - it doesn't an action verb's job. Does it mean to use an already-existing online form? Create that online form? What he quite obviously meant was "hey, do the online thingy" and was too lazy/scattered/rushed/illiterate/confident in me ( [Razz]

) to actually come up with a specific, coherent sentence.

I applaud when it makes the language better - more descriptive, more specific, widening horizons. Making online as a verb to mean "doing anything online" turns us into Homer Simpson. [Frown]

Edit: Because misspelling illiterate is pretty dang funny.

[ June 11, 2004, 02:42 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

I think it's just an uneducated way of saying "upload."

Posted by Taalcon (Member # 839) on :

To Online (v) to place on the inter- or intranet.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

Then he used it wrong. He was recommending that the council create an online form to allow employees to create requests.

How much would that suck? He makes up a word and uses it wrong straight out of the box. [Razz]

Edit: I swear, I only care about spelling in the Sticklers Unite threads.

ETA: Well, sort of wrong.

[ June 11, 2004, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

I love verbing. [Smile]

Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with functional shifts in the language; it happens quite frequently and has been doing so for all of history. But when there's already an established word that not only says the same thing, but says it better, there's no excuse for trying to add new one.
_____

Farmgirl: Online is now usually a closed compound, though it is still occasionally hyphenated.

Posted by Polio (Member # 6479) on :

quote:
It was an accountant.

And that is why they deal with numbers.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:

quote:
I'm willing to bet English isn't the first language of the individual responsible for that horrendous sentence, in which case, I am very willing to allow leeway.
It was an accountant.

Ah, so English wasn't his/her first language.

quote:
it doesn't an action verb's job.

*snicker*

[ June 11, 2004, 09:59 PM: Message edited by: rivka ]

Posted by hansenj (Member # 4034) on :

I'd just like to take this moment to interrupt this thread and say that I love it when Katharina says, "Oh my stars." [Smile]

I don't know, but it makes me smile.

Carry on... [Wink]

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

rivka, I read your post five times before I figured out what was so funny. [Razz]

Posted by David Bowles (Member # 1021) on :

It's called "anthimeria," folks, and it's been practiced for milennia.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

Duh. It's still a terribly-constructed sentence.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

Hi David! [Smile]

(Nice preenage.)

[ June 12, 2004, 12:33 AM: Message edited by: Icarus ]

Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :

Shouldn't the title of this thread read "...not be borne"?

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

Nope. The word choice was deliberate.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:
rivka, I read your post five times before I figured out what was so funny.

*giggle*

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

You know, an editor in 1542 was equally horrified the first time someone set "We need to document that."

[Big Grin]