Competing forms: tased vs. tasered

[Clai Rice]

I don't see anything on the verb "taser" in the archives, and its analyzed
form "tase" as in "Don't tase me, bro" (maybe a WOTY possibility as symbolic
of passing linguistic fancies?
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005000.html).

Both of the competing past tense forms, "tasered" and "tased" appear to have
come into the public consciousness with Rodney King and his trial. "tased"
is in a message transcript from the night of the beating that was used at
the trial:

Washington Post March 19, 1991, Tuesday (Lexis Nexis)
"You just had a big-time use of force . . . tased [shocked] and beat the
suspect of CHP [California Highway Patrol] pursuit, big-time," read a
computer message timed at 12:56 a.m. from one of four patrol cars involved
in apprehending King after he allegedly was speeding and failed to pull
over.
(the transcript dates from March 3)

But "tasered" is used at trial also:

NY Times, March 30, 1991, Saturday, Late Edition - Final (Lexis Nexis)
... King had an unusual reaction to shocks from a police stun gun.
"I never saw a person being Tasered twice and struck at least nine times
without having some more effect than that," said Officer Beauregard, who had
arrived ...

Early on it seems "tased" was favored. Before Nov 1999, Lexis Nexis (Major
News) gives "tased" 72 hits and "tasered" only 2, but after Nov 1999, the
numbers are "tased" 113 vs. "tasered" 408. Many of the uses of "tasered" are
capitalized, so maybe the print media's growing awareness of  copyright
issues has affected their choice.

If we count Google hits, "tasered" is winning, with 1,150,000 vs 295,000 for
"tased", and many hits on the latter are false.

Today the Atlanta Constitution used both forms in the same article. The
headline is

The title is Unruly 'Trick-or-Treat'-er tasered by off-duty Gwinnett police

But in the body is a quotation from the police spokesperson:
"The officer stated she was extremely combative and he was unable to get her
into the patrol car," Spellman said. "After several attempts to urge the
girl to comply verbally, the officer tased her."

--Clai Rice

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