road-trip, v.

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 6/5/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 05, 2007 at 05:18:05AM -0700, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >
> > > One of Fox's beloved _F & F_ anchors suggests that they
> > > "could road-trip to England and look for the Loch Ness
> > > Monster."
> >
> > And your main problem with this is _road-trip_ being used
> > as a verb?
>
> Jesse, this is a linguistics list.  Were it a geopolitical awareness list the
> headline would have differed.

So what's objectionable about "road-trip" as a verb? Seems
unremarkable to me. Proquest suggests the verbal noun "road tripping"
can be traced back to the pre-coeducational days of Yale and other
formerly all-male schools:

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1973 _N.Y. Times_ 3 June 39/6 Social life was also strained as the
women chaffed over ... the continued practice of "road tripping," or
weekend jaunts by male students to women's colleges.
-----
1974 _Hartford Courant_ 16 May 55/2 Before coeducation, social life at
the three schools was confined to weekend dating or "road tripping" to
nearby schools of the opposite sex.
-----


--Ben Zimmer

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