pronouns gone mad

[Laurence Horn]

I wonder, though, how often it *is* a verb.  I suspect it shows up a lot more as an adjective, as below ("I'm already peeved about this").  Such occurrences naturally take "very" as a modifier and not readily a "by"-agent phrased ("The Ukrainians were peeved by Putin").  To me, verbal "peeve" (as in "That really peeves me"), while indeed attested from 1901, sounds more a like a back-formation from "peeved" (adj.) or "peevish".  (Historically, I guess it really was a back-formation from "peevish".)  For example, this cite under "peeved"--

1929   A. Conan Doyle Maracot Deep 264   What is up, Jack? You seem peeved this morning.

--sounds entirely natural, whereas I'd be surprised to find Conan Doyle describing someone or something as having peeved poor Jack.

LH

On May 8, 2014, at 5:47 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 5/8/2014 05:33 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>
>> When did 'peeve' transform into a verb??
>>
>> DanG
>
> 1901.
>
> Joel
>
>
>
>> On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 2:59 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: pronouns gone mad
>> >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > I've already peeved about this, a couple or three years ago. I came across
>> > it in an academic paper by an MD who alternated between "he" and "she" as
>> > the pronoun for "baby," when he could simply have used "it," the sex of the
>> > baby being of no consequence, needless to say.
>> >
>> > As for Arden, it - "Arden" is too unisex for me to make a decision; even
>> > "Wilson" is unisex, anymore - is an embarrassment to us cat-lovers.
>> >
>> >
>> > On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 11:01 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>> > >wrote:
>> >
>> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > > -----------------------
>> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> > > Subject:      pronouns gone mad
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > >
>> > > God forbid your gendered pronouns make you into an unwitting sexist.
>> > >
>> > > Arden Moore of Yahoo! today:
>> > >
>> > > "If you need a sign it is time to trim your cat's nails, nothing is
>> > clearer
>> > > than when he perches on your lap, purrs and starts kneading your thighs
>> > > with her front paws. But this is also a sign of affection. Experts say
>> > that
>> > > this action beckons your adult cat back to a safe, welcoming memory when
>> > > she was nuzzling his mother for milk as a newborn kitten. He is being
>> > > affectionate and a bit nostalgic. "
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Back in the eighties I had one or two freshman who did this - out of
>> > > thousands - before being corrected.
>> > >
>> > > Now it's a  bylined Web correspondent.
>> > >
>> > > JL
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> > truth."
>> > >
>> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > -Wilson
>> > -----
>> > 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
>> >
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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