Is "caucus" a verb? I would be inclined to say no, but consulting with assorted dictionaries around the place does sadly not back me up 100%. About 2 weeks ago I read a quote from someone in an English newspaper saying "I don't even know who I'm going to caucus for yet" (about the US presidential nominees) and I thought that was odd. Then yesterday I read in another paper (Australian) a similar use of the word and I still thought it was odd.
Whaddayathink? Have you ever used it as a verb? Or would you?
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
... or how to waste time in the land of stupid laundry
In 2007 I made a Grand Romantic Gesture and moved to the other side of the world for the sake of my international boyfriend. In 2008 he became my husband, and the serious work of living and loafing in a new country really began.
Blog Archive
-
▼
2008
(217)
-
▼
January
(18)
- Happy Birthday, Mischa!
- Stray Photo For The Day
- Eek!
- Happy Birthday Damien and Bronwyn!
- RSWB's Creche - Places Available!
- Queen For A Day
- Life's A Beach
- Not Hating It!
- Names
- Who, Me?
- It's Not Me, It's .. The New Me
- Grammar Poll!
- Highlights Of Today
- Not So Bad
- Pong
- The World According To Mary Poppins
- Blog Nerdery
- Silvester The Cat
-
▼
January
(18)
2 comments:
no, i have never heard or read caucus used as a verb and i think it's stupid. i hate this bureaucratic move towards verbalising nouns. i flatly refuse to "progress" this or "action" that. there are perfectly adequate verbs available. i make an acception for "access".
ps. i've just signed up to facebook and i've noticed that there are a lot of "groups" that one can join that revolve around assaulting people who use bad grammar etc. while i do not condone the use of violence against the illiterate, i wonder where all these fellow pedants have been all my life.
Yeah, there's nothing worse than a boring worky meeting full of boring officey jargon about actioning things. Happily as a perma-unemployed person it's not something I worry too much about these days. And yet I still find it annoying.
And you know who else is annoying? All the pedants (who I think have been lurking on the Letters pages of newspapers all this time). Much as I may agree with them about the use of words like "medalling" and the mispronunciation of "ceremony" (actually, I don't care so much about that. I also don't care about people who pronounce "harrass" so that it rhymes with "crevasse"), I don't know that I actually want to talk about it or hear other people be whiny. Although that being said, I have rather enjoyed writing this comment. Hmm.
Post a Comment