Anyone who hates verbing nouns should be historied, storied, and permanently Google-doc’d.
The Traditional Rule:
Nouns are nouns. Verbs are verbs. Thou shalt not turn a noun into a verb just because it sounds clever. Grammar guides have long warned that verbing nouns leads to chaos, confusion, and (gasp!) innovation.
Why It’s Broken:
Because English has always verbified nouns — and done it spectacularly well. Shakespeare did it. Chaucer did it. Even the most puritanical grammarians use “chair,” “email,” and “Google” as verbs without blinking. The idea that we should resist verbing is both historically false and practically stupid. English verbs nouns because it makes life easier. Why “give a presentation” when you can just “present”? Why “send a message” when you can just “message”?
Absurdities and Contradictions:
“Medal” is okay as a noun. But when Olympians “medal,” people clutch their pearls.
“Host” is fine at a dinner. But to “host a meeting” was once scandalous.
“Google” was a company, then a verb, then a universal synonym for searching.
“Chair the meeting” is now respectable. But “action the proposal”? Oh no, not that!
We “binge” Netflix now. “Adult” as a verb (“I can’t adult today”) horrifies purists. Why?
Real-World Examples:
“Let’s calendar this.”
“We were tasked with a new directive.”
“Please reference the guide.”
“She friended me, then unfriended me.”
“We Zoomed, Skyped, and Slacked all day.”
“He headlined the festival.”
British vs. American Variants:
Americans lead in verb innovation: “incentivize,” “networking,” “transitioning.”
Brits have adopted many but still sneer at “leveraging,” “solutioning,” and “onboarding.”
The Reform Proposal:
Abolish the stigma against noun-to-verb transformation.
Recognize verbing as a core strength of English, not a weakness.
Allow contextual clarity to decide acceptability, not outdated rulebooks.
Teach students to create and play with verbs — not fear them.
How It Would Work in Practice:
“Let’s action this item.” ✅
“He adulted hard today.” ✅
“She Ubered across town, then Venmoed the driver.” ✅
“We brainstormed it and soft-launched the concept.” ✅
Final Word: Verbing is Thinking.
A dynamic, expressive language creates verbs as it breathes. Anyone who tells you English should stop verbing is asking it to stop evolving. Let’s not fossilize — let’s energize. Let’s play. Let’s verb.