Rant: Using a noun as a verb

>: Pet peeve - using a noun as a verb. Example: "I architected this site." Arrrrgh! No, you didn’t architect anything. You DESIGNED it! The word architect is a noun that describes a person who designs something, be it a building, an application, or a website. Just because you are skillfull at coding or designing, does not give you the license to be sloppy in the use of your language.
Rant over.

lol

Hmmn. I don’t really see the problem with using a noun as a verb if it sounds right and has a clear meaning.

Architect is a valid verb ("to architect"), and a sensible extension of the word given that these days an architect needn’t necessarily design buildings.

Your usage "You didn’t architect anything" is fine, but your peeve "I architected this site" is indeed bad form. Architect doesn’t lend itself well to the past tense. It could arguably be "I architectured this site", or preferably "I created this site’s architecture".

There is a big semantic difference between "I created this site’s architecture" and "I created this site’s design", and I can understand why someone who had created the structure of a site but not the physical appearance would not want to say "I designed this site".

In fact, "I structured this site" would be the best alternative.

As an on-topic, "I MODxed this site" seems fine to me.

However, it does seem that a lot of people use this ugly "architected" form, and a lot of people are miffed by it.

For both sides of the coin, see:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2004/10/01/236740.aspx
and
http://pervivere.blogspot.com/2005/09/architect-is-not-verb.html

Heh, if we didn’t have people who mixed and matched then we’d never have any new words to say ... and that would be no fun What about ’googled’?

Actually...
I think being a mom gives you full access to all nouns as verbs, so as long as the "architect" action came from a mom object ($mom->architect) then it is acceptable.

For example, when I was young, it was not uncommon for this exchange in my home:

-sD-: "Mom, can I have a cookie?"

Mom: "I’ll cookie you!"

So in that context it is acceptable. Perhaps Sottwell can provide more insight into the fundamentals of noun/verb conversion in regards to MomSpeak.

-sD-
Dr. Scotty Delicious, Scientist.

Well, a good deal of my verbiage consisted of a large wooden spoon. I’d probably be jailed for it these days, though. Didn’t keep the kids out of jail themselves, but at least it kept some semblance of peace in a house with three boys less than a year apart in age.

Oooooh! It’s like sitting on a fire ant mound!
HalD

Quote from: PaulGregory at Jan 05, 2007, 11:47 AM

Hmmn. I don’t really see the problem with using a noun as a verb if it sounds right and has a clear meaning.

Architect is a valid verb ("to architect"), and a sensible extension of the word given that these days an architect needn’t necessarily design buildings.

However, it does seem that a lot of people use this ugly "architected" form, and a lot of people are miffed by it.

We always have the "Don’t fence me in with the rules of language" group and the "These are the established rules so let’s follow them" group. The problem arises when the former group wants to quote the rules, which is totally out of their bailiwick. In fact, authoritative dictionaries (not the ones that merely quote the people on the streets) do not show architect as a verb at all. The objection to a non-existent opinion that architecture is only about buildings can be ignored. No one is saying you can’t design a computer or a bridge and be called an architect. Well, you can’t get a uni degree as an architect by only studying the design of computers and HTML pages, so that person is a Web architect but not a shingled architect. If you contend that architect is a verb, you can’t suddenly decide the various tenses that naturally arise are ugly. That’s creating some middle ground of "Yes, I like it as a verb, but only in the infinitive form."

We opened the Pandora’s box of "verbizing nouns" decades ago. Maybe the genie cannot be put back so we will have to live with people who globalize, office, architect, and knife (rather than internationalize, rent office space, design, and stab). We must also accept "Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone", but that doesn’t mean the rules have changed. It simply means we must try to comprehend what the rule breakers mean to say.