On Trend...ing

I have just about had it with reverse gerunds. There's no official term for them, of course, but that's what I call them. Another blogger, Judson Knight, wrote about reverse gerunds 13 years ago, and the problem has only grown. Some people call it "verbing," which is itself a gerund that perhaps shouldn't be.

Now the new word "trending" is actually a gerund. Some nouns should never become verbs, and "trend" is one of them. As my choir director always said, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." But the larger scope of the problem with today's language is the reverse. At least with gerunds, the suffix "-ing" is added to make it clear that this is now a verb. In the case of reverse gerunds, no attempt is made to alter the word, it's just used as is. "To office," "to gift," and so on. It's terribly trendy. I can't think of any other examples at the moment, but it's everywhere.

Another new term really gets my goat: "invite." Invite is now being used in place of invitation. The verb is "to invite," and there is already a perfectly good word for the noun. Invitation! I invite all gentle readers to reclaim the use of "invitation." Use it as often as you can, bring it back!

Today's post is brought to you by gunpowder green tea. Delicious and uplifting. Nothing cheers the heart quite like a cup of tea. Note that I am only using verbs as verbs here. Tame the reverse gerund! Bring back the verbs.