Consequence, as a verb

[David Bowie]

Last evening Jeanne (my wife) and i went to our 5yo daughter's school's
"reading night", which had a "parenting tips" session as part of it. One
(linguistic) thing i was struck by is that "consequence" was used as a verb
multiple times, and that by both the person leading the session *and* a
couple of the parents.

Eventually, i figured out the translation: "To consequence" was being used
as a 1-for-1 stand-in for "to punish". (It was realizing that the noun
"consequences" was being used in place of "punishments" that got me to
realize this.) Is this a new(-ish) linguistic fashion among child-rearing
types, or has this been bubbling along beneath my awareness for a while now?

It made me think of George Carlin's routine on the emotional bleaching of
"shellshock" as it changed, by stages, into "post-traumatic stress
disorder".

Anyway, might as well consider this a very, very early nomination for the
"most useless" category in the WotY 2k5 voting.

David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
    Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
    house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
    chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.