'Onboard' as a Verb, and an Adverb

[Wilson Gray]

I think that Doug meant to write "adjective," not "adverb."

These uses can be startling. I was somewhat taken aback when, at the
passenger terminal of the Rhein-Main AFB in Frankfurt, we GI's were
ordered to _offload_ a bus by Air Force personnel.This was in 1961,
quite some while ago, when I first heard the term so used. But, at the
time, it was Air Force jargon only, brand-new to us Gi's. In the Army,
we still used ordinary civvy-street terminology for this act. We Gi's
"got on(to)" buses and we "got off (of)" buses. We didn't _onload_ or
_offload_ buses.

-Wilson

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 7:55 AM, LanDi Liu <strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       LanDi Liu <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: 'Onboard' as a Verb, and an Adverb
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In my experience working in various corporate jobs (Lockheed Martin, Johnson
> and Johnson, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch), that kind of practice
> (inventing new POS usages for words) is pretty common.  I get the impression
> that it's also pretty common in real estate, insurance, and other
> industries.  I think this is because new procedures are constantly being
> developed, so new nouns and verbs are created to describe them.   From what
> I've read, it's reasonably common to make new lexical words.  New function
> words would be much more exceptional.
>
> I don't see any adverb uses in the examples you gave, though.
>
> Randy
>
> On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 4:13 AM, Doug_Harris <cats22 at stny.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Doug_Harris <cats22 at STNY.RR.COM>
>> Subject:      'Onboard' as a Verb, and an Adverb
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> From an application for licensing with an insurance company:
>>
>> I confirm this is the correct FMO for which I want to onboard. (If this is
>> not correct, please call your FMO and do not proceed with this onboarding
>> process.)
>> --
>> IMHO, they've pirated a perfectly word for a silly-sounding use.
>> dh
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Randy Alexander
> Jilin City, China
> My Manchu studies blog:
> http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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