Actioning
It is becoming increasingly common in management circles to use nouns as verbs. There are many nouns which do function as verbs (‘function’ being one) and it has always been one way in which new verb forms have entered the language.
‘Text’ is one such word. Up until relatively recently ‘text’ was just words on a page. Nowadays, you can ‘text’ your friends or Mick Hucknall or whoever’s telephone number you know, provided that you have a mobile phone. This expansion of meaning to become a verb is acceptable as it is the best option available. You can’t just start saying: “Yeah, I marmed my friend”, with ‘marmed’ meaning ‘texted’ it just doesn’t work like that. ‘Text’ as a verb serves a purpose. It filled a niche.
What is unacceptable – and by ‘unacceptable’, I mean, punishable by the forced removal of a hand – is the use of a noun as a verb where there is already a verb available for use. Now why would anyone do this? Why would anyone say: ‘Please action the following,’ before giving a list of instructions? Why? Because they’re a twat – that’s why.
Whenever anyone uses the term ‘actioning’ they are doing so to sound smarter than they are. What they are actually doing is showing everyone that they struggle to eat unaided. You perform an action. You don’t action one. All they mean is ‘do’. Nobody’s fooled. Just because we can’t read your instructions doesn’t mean that we’re dense. It means you can’t write and are trying to make simple things sound complex. This is because you’ve never achieved anything complex, like retaining drool through the ‘closed mouth’ technique.
Please take care when:
Actioning the readage of the above textualisation.
Actioning an enwalkment circumferating the municipal parkery.
Actioning a defecatory relinquishment of anal surplusness.
Actioning the extractification of one’s cranial appendage from encasement within one’s rectalment.
‘Text’ is one such word. Up until relatively recently ‘text’ was just words on a page. Nowadays, you can ‘text’ your friends or Mick Hucknall or whoever’s telephone number you know, provided that you have a mobile phone. This expansion of meaning to become a verb is acceptable as it is the best option available. You can’t just start saying: “Yeah, I marmed my friend”, with ‘marmed’ meaning ‘texted’ it just doesn’t work like that. ‘Text’ as a verb serves a purpose. It filled a niche.
What is unacceptable – and by ‘unacceptable’, I mean, punishable by the forced removal of a hand – is the use of a noun as a verb where there is already a verb available for use. Now why would anyone do this? Why would anyone say: ‘Please action the following,’ before giving a list of instructions? Why? Because they’re a twat – that’s why.
Whenever anyone uses the term ‘actioning’ they are doing so to sound smarter than they are. What they are actually doing is showing everyone that they struggle to eat unaided. You perform an action. You don’t action one. All they mean is ‘do’. Nobody’s fooled. Just because we can’t read your instructions doesn’t mean that we’re dense. It means you can’t write and are trying to make simple things sound complex. This is because you’ve never achieved anything complex, like retaining drool through the ‘closed mouth’ technique.
Please take care when:
Actioning the readage of the above textualisation.
Actioning an enwalkment circumferating the municipal parkery.
Actioning a defecatory relinquishment of anal surplusness.
Actioning the extractification of one’s cranial appendage from encasement within one’s rectalment.
posted by Blue and Brown | 2:43 AM
1 Comments:
I share your frustration over nouns being turned into verbs. However, your example of "texting" is not quite correct, when you say we have no alternative.
Personally, I say either "send a text message" (and it MUST be a text MESSAGE - not just "a text"); or "send an SMS". This is to distinguish it from the existing noun, "a text", which refers to a generic block of writing.
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