"Apple likes _jailbroken iPhones_, too."

Arnold Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Sun Jul 5 11:43:06 UTC 2009


On Jul 4, 2009, at 9:04 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

>
> On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 9:25 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> "Jailbroken [iPhones]"?!
>>
>> But then, how else would you say it?
>
> "Jailbreaked"... ow! STAR STAR STAR.

PSP "jailbroken" is what you'd expect for the verb
"jailbreak" ("break" is the head of the composite, so the forms of
"jailbreak" follow those of "break"), and in a google search it's by
far the most frequent form as a prenominal modifier (and, i think, in
predicate uses, but that's harder to check).  after "jailbroken" --
way after -- comes "jailbroke" ("broke" is a non-standard PSP for
"break", as in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it").  in last place
comes "jailbreaked", the full regularization of the verb.

there is a noun "jailbreak" (as applied to iPhones etc.).  presumably
the verb "jailbreak" (as applied to iPhones etc.) and the noun
originate in the noun "jailbreak" 'act of escaping from a jail', via a
metaphorical extension (plus verbing).

i haven't yet found any occurrences of the verbing "jailbreak" 'break
out of jail'.

arnold

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list