Consequence, as a verb

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>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?

Robert Hartwell Fiske's "Dictionary of Disagreeable English" defines this
verb and provides a brief critique:

<<Consequence: Idiotic for _discipline_ (or similar words). ... USE
_punish_. .... / Not yet in many dictionaries, the politically correct,
though completely inane and pathetic, to _consequence_ is increasingly used
by psychologists and human resource personnel, themselves often inane and
pathetic. ....>>

-- Doug Wilson