verbing in the Stanford Chaparral

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Mon Apr 16 16:02:21 UTC 2007


(the Stanford Chaparral is the student humor magazine)

from vol. CVIII no. 3, p. 8, "A Gentleman's Club" (by Meghan
McCurdy), the verbing of an interjection:

[about a place called A Gentleman's Club]  It pains me even now to
take it down, but rest assured that in the low grunts of lesser
humanity I found no conversation worth having, no music worth
listening to, and in the unnecessary and gratuitous display of base
and vile flesh no companionship worth pursuing.  I fie upon it.

[the OED takes "fie" back to a sound of disgust]

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