today's verbing

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Nov 20, 2008, at 1:29 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: today's verbing
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When I need a verb for 'make extinct' I use "extinguish".

i totally doubt this.  there are only a few contexts in which this
will work.

   The early settlers extincted many varieties of birds.  'made many
varietities of bird extinct'

    BUT The  early settlers extinguished many varieties of birds.

just won't do here.

"extinguish" rarely means 'make extinct'.

arnold

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org