"When you _victim-blame_..."

[Jonathan Lighter]

The syntax is useful because it saves space, time, and breath.

It's easier to write or say "victim blame" than "blame the victim."
Moreover, it puts the action verb in the stronger clause-final position.

Like to "early vote," the trend is becoming broader than classical
"back-formation," as Arnold has undoubtedly observed.

JL


On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 8:39 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "When you _victim-blame_..."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 4:23 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> > My impression is that this kind of structure has definitely moved away
> > from, IMO, a joke and may be headed to "unremarkable, perhaps even to
> > "ordinary." Or the novelty may wear off too quickly and it'll die out.
> >
> > Youneverknow.
>
> Arnold covered this back-formation (along with "shut-shame") here:
>
>
> http://arnoldzwicky.org/2013/04/15/synthetic-compounds-and-back-formed-verbs-rape/
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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