posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 07:46am on 2004-08-31
To "spoiler" a message means to put a spoiler warning in the subject header and/or insert "spoiler space" (or, on LJ, spoiler lj-cuts) to make it possible to avoid any spoilers contained therein. So I guess you could say spoilering means spoiling the spoilers, in order not to spoil the movie/book you're talking about for people who haven't seen/read it yet.

I haven't seen "spoil" used in the same sense (i.e. "spoil a message" meaning what I described for "spoiler a message"), though perhaps that's done in different corners of the net than I've been reading?

"Sure, any noun can be verbed, but that doesn't mean it ought to be. :-)"

True, 'dat (both halves of it). But what amused me was the inversion of meaning in the verbing process, which strikes me as a little unusual.

(BTW, what does it mean that the sentence, "Verbing weirds language," has stopped feeling self-referential (that is, all perception of dissonance has vanished) for me?)
cellio: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] cellio at 11:56am on 2004-08-31
To "spoiler" a message means to [...]

Oh, to spoiler-proof it, or apply spoiler protection. Ok. I haven't heard the word "spoiler" used for that activity before.

I haven't seen "spoil" used in the same sense (i.e. "spoil a message" meaning what I described for "spoiler a message"),

Ditto. You "spoil" something by revealing the ending or whatever, not by impeding that.

(BTW, what does it mean that the sentence, "Verbing weirds language," has stopped feeling self-referential (that is, all perception of dissonance has vanished) for me?)

"It's not the verbing that weirds the language, it's the renounification." (Marc LeBlanc)

"Weirds" as a verb still gets my attention just a bit (in a "that's not quite right" way), but verbing nouns is pretty routine these days. What bugs me is when perfectly good verbs already exist for that purpose, as is so often the case when goofy management trends are involved.
 
posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 01:37pm on 2004-08-31
"It's not the verbing that weirds the language, it's the renounification."

As much as I like that as a button slogan, I don't think that really makes it any weirder, just clumsier (sometimes, yes, pointlessly and annoyingly so).

" What bugs me is when perfectly good verbs already exist for that purpose [...]"

*nod* Sometimes it's for finer nuance, sometimes it's deliberately silly (sometimes both, when I'm making nonstandard nouns from adjectives) ... and sometimes it's just stupidly clumsy use of language. That third category happens rather too often. *sigh*
 
posted by [identity profile] redaxe.livejournal.com at 02:28pm on 2004-08-31
E.g., "doable" -- one of my most despised words. And, since I work for investment bankers, it's only one of the most egregious examples of verbing nouns that's out there. "Feasible" and "possible" are my preferred synonyms for "doable" -- I have been told there's a nuance in "doable" of intent, though it's not how I've mostly seen it used.

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