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I was once told (half-jokingly) that in English, you can practically "verb any noun".
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And noun any verb. But you have to be careful.
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In this case they seem to verb adjectives too as the proper phrase would have been "favorite file". Not sure if English language should be "beautifuled" with these constructs. I know I'm picky but I love this language even if it's an adopted one. 
Mircea
modified 20hrs ago.
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Mircea Neacsu wrote: beautifuled
Beautified.
And in this case, yes, it's a thing.
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Mircea Neacsu wrote: "favorite file"
Which illustrates the ambiguity: Is your "favorite file" the one you would prefer over other files, or a file of your favorites (e.g. URLs, lovers or whatever)?
In this case, you could of course "favorites file" for the second alternative, but even if you can, maybe you don't do that. I have seen lots of such cases where I had to guess from context what the meaning is. The less ambiguity, the better. (Except when the very purpose of the statement is to play with the language!)
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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Appears locale specific. Am not finding such a word in Windows in India (English).
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Interesting. Mine is Win 11 Pro, 23H2 English(US)
Mircea
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Mine is Win 11 Home Edition, 22H2. This is also English, but not US English; mostly UK-English customized to India.
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Must have been created by the same people who have made terms like "Your Spend" and "The Ask". Both of these words are verbs but Marketing people have corrupted and bastardized them into nouns. I rail against them in meetings. You have a question not an ask, asking is what you do with a question.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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Along with the word tasked which was entirely made up.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Comes the revolution, Marketing/Advertising folk should be first up against the wall, "for the cold blooded murder of the English tongue".
I'm half-joking, but only half.
Professor Higgins captured it nicely : "Why can't the English teach their children how to speak? Norwegians learn Norwegian, the Greeks are taught their Greek....."
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MarkTJohnson wrote: You have a question not an ask
I've not heard it used in place of 'question' but rather a short version of asking a favor. "Hey, man, I've got a big ask of you. Would you mind < doing some favor >?"
There are no solutions, only trade-offs. - Thomas Sowell
A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do.
- Calvin (Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes)
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That should be a request, not an ask.
This IS the hill I will die on.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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Preachin' to the choir.
There are no solutions, only trade-offs. - Thomas Sowell
A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do.
- Calvin (Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes)
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A request is the second time around.
First you go out on a quest. If you fail, then you request (if resources allow).
On the serious side:
I love to play with language. When I was the dad of a teenager, she picked it up, and we were twisting words around, breaking words into pieces and putting the pieces together in new and surprising ways (like the one above), and using words and grammar rules in new ways. One example: Celery was often referred to as "shop" in our family. (A bakery is where you bake things, a sellery is where you sell things.) We had hundreds of such twists, but most of them are not translatable to English.
The girl grew up to become very language conscious, both in terms of vocabulary and grammar. The language play stimulated her, and often, together we dug into the historical background, the etymology, of both terms and grammar.
So I am certainly not negative to neither verbing nor nouning - as long as you are aware when you are using it humorously. It will make you realize that both are very common without being used in a humorous way. It will educate you in your language.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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I do like the "shop" thing.
When I was in college for my Computer Science degree, I had one professor who would always come into the room and draw a line on the chalkboard. He would then say, "Now, I can remark."
My daughter once noted after something bad had happened several times after we had served chicken for dinner that we must have a "Poultrygeist" in house.
When I agree with one of my kids I will text Potassium. Short for K. Which is short for OK. Which is short for okay.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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Did you mean
“Potassium is long for K”
Try 19 next time.
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MarkTJohnson wrote: You have a question not an ask, asking is what you do with a question.
A question assigns some quest to you, doesn't it?
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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As was said in Calvin and Hobbes, "Verbing nouns weirds the language."
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Cannot argue with Oxford so, case closed. Maybe someone should send a memo to Merriam-Wesbster that is my go to reference.
Mircea
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Mircea Neacsu wrote: Maybe someone should send a memo to Merriam-Wesbster that is my go to reference.
Agreed - mine too.
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David O'Neil wrote: Brevity often coincides with clarity
But when it doesn't...
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Especially as a non-native English speaker, I will say that it often doesn't!
I do not get used to it! I learned 50 years ago that in US newspaper headlines, "and" is written as "," (no matter how much empty space there is at the end of the line), but it still gives me chills. In technical media/literature, you too frequently read articles that use an insane amount of abbreviations, often rather obscure ones, without explaining a single one of them. And then you come across those going to the other extreme, not only expanding the abbreviation in a parenthesis, but doing it on every single use of it throughout the article, and also expanding (at every use) abbreviations so familiar to everyone that we no longer think of it as an abbreviation - such as FM, DAB, TV, DVD, USD, UTC, Basic and Fortran.
If you think brevity coincides with clarity, you should start programming in APL 
That is not just a joke: Conciseness may work well in a tribal language (such as the APL programmer tribe), but you should be aware when you move outside the tribe, and know how to handle that. Sticking to your tribal language is rarely the best alternative. Ignoring well known terms in the non-tribal language is not a good alternative, either.
Any professional should have a period as an instructor, teaching a non-tribal audience his profession, to discover what is easily understood and what is not. Too many professionals think the solution is to teach the tribal language to the non-tribal society; usually it is not. The solution is for the professional to learn to speak in a non-tribal language. That includes avoiding tribal abbreviations and tribalisms such as verbings and nouning. Yes, that is frequently an element of tribal language. An example: I had a motor that wouldn't work, and mentioned to a friend of mine that I suspected that the fuse was blown. His immediate response: "Ya ohmed it, didn't ya?"
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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