"fonted" = 'identified on screen'?

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:54 AM -0400 5/20/08, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 10:15 AM, Laurence Horn
><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  In a discussion of whether and when talking heads are identified by
>>  nicknames rather than by their official first + last name when they
>>  appear on television, Mike & Mike (on ESPN radio and television this
>>  morning) were using "fonted" as a past participle, apparently because
>>  the same guy who does the identification for their and other ESPN
>>  shows is in charge of selecting the fonts in which the identification
>>  is made.  So Mike Golic asked Mike Greenberg, in jest, whether the
>>  latter had "ever been fonted as Greenie", the hypocoristic by which
>>  he is often referred to verbally on their show.  (Did you catch this,
>>  Alice?)  In a quick search on google, I wasn't able to find any other
>>  instances of "fonted (as)" with this sense, so maybe it was a nonce
>>  creation that will now disappear, but if not, you read it here first.
>
>I would've guessed that "chyron" would be a more likely candidate for
>verbing in this context.

Not for those (like Mike, Mike, and me) who are--or were--unfamiliar
with the term, in either nominal or participial form...

>And indeed there are a handful of relevant
>Googlehits for "chyroned as".
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org