verse = compete vs. (1984)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 1 Oct 2005 10:38:09 -0700, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:

>On Sep 30, 2005, at 10:47 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
>> ... in a recent alt.usage.english discussion, Andrew Usher noted
>> that the preposition "versus" is often pronounced colloquially as
>> "verse". This strikes me as a more likely source for the back-
>> formation "verse" (v). If enough people are saying things like, "I
>> watched the Yankees verse the Red Sox last night," then it would be
>> quite easy to reinterpret the preposition as a verb.
>
>at first glance, this just looks bizarre: why would anyone pronounce
>the preposition "versus" as "verse"?  it looks a bit less strange if
>you consider the possibility that the pronunciation comes from the
>abbreviated spelling "vs." rather than directly from the (spoken)
>preposition "versus".  sort of like pronouncing "viz." as /vIz/, but
>a bit more complicated, since "verse" gets its /r/ from the
>pronunciation -- but the pronunciation stops where the abbreviation
>does, with the /s/ (and "s.").

FWIW, there are only ~120 Ghits for "Roe verse Wade" (and only 45 "unique"
hits). Also only 41 Ghits for "verse the Yankees" (with some false hits).
So if pronunciation spelling is any indication, "verse" for "vs." is not
extremely common but it's out there.


--Ben Zimmer