Yesterday a student wrote about a problem currently havocking the environment, which drove me to consult the OED, which lists a handful of instances of havoc as a transitive verb, the most recent dating from 1884. More concise than wreaking havoc but lacking that wreaky-wrecky vibe, havocking is more likely to show up in my vocabulary than another unusual verbification I encountered in a student paper this morning: biograph as a transitive verb, which, the OED tells me, has a pedigree stretching back to 1776 and including this 2004 reference in Commonweal: "William Faulkner is now an institution, first biographed thirty years ago by Joseph Blotner in two massive volumes."
If Blotner biographed Faulkner, then I suppose I can allow my student to use biograph as a transitive verb, as long as he's aware that sometimes verbification uglifies nouns, havocking the aesthetic environment.
2 comments:
Brilliant!
Seriously, I love your sense of humor & exacting linguistics.
I generally despair for the future of literacy in the Matrix age;
but finding pedagogy so deliciously frosted with wit rekindles hope!!
May the Internet Gods populate the web with your wisdom...
Thanks! "Frosted with wit" suggests a new line of breakfast cereals for the thinking person's breakfast.
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