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Colin Higbie's avatar

I love these. Even we rhetorical amateurs can punch up our writing via verbing. I had always called it verbification before, but "verbing" autologizes better. I might need some more practice...

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Jay Heinrichs's avatar

It does take practice, but verbing is one of the easier rulebreak figures. You're already killing it with "autologizes"! Presumably from the medical term "autologous," transferring something from the same body; e.g., an autologous--same-person--bone marrow transplant. Am I right?

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Colin Higbie's avatar

Indirectly: autology is the study of oneself. A word that reflects its own meaning (e.g., noun is a noun) is autological. By that meaning, verbing would also be autological. I sought to verb that (did I verb verb correctly there?). While I'm sure the root meaning is the same as the medical usage, I may have picked a word with a poor connotation match for my wordplay. This is fun.

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Jay Heinrichs's avatar

Yes, you anthimerianized perfectly!

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Chuck Sherman's avatar

Would “Doberman smile” and “firecracker fart” be instances of verb

ing or of adverbing?

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Jay Heinrichs's avatar

Both are anthimerias. Calling all anthimerias “verbing” enacts a metonymy. Nerdy enough for you?

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Chuck Sherman's avatar

He/she who dies using the most words to look up wins. Vox Alcis in Deserto.

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Dorothy Heinrichs's avatar

Rhetorical photoshopping. A new Olympic sport.

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Jay Heinrichs's avatar

AI, actually. Which is unsporting.

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