Just For Fun: Why...?

[BobM]

Why do many people describe the act of wearing a skirt as "skirting"? Would one ever say whilst wearing trousers, "I am panting"? Or "I pant sometimes"?

What we have here is another example of improperly using a noun as a verb. If one is, say, circumnavigating a lake while wearing a skirt he can rightly say that he is 'skirting' the lake because that is an action and the verb form is appropriate. He could say, "I skirted the lake while skirted", but not "I skirted the lake while skirting". "Skirting" can also be a noun when used to describe something like a border or edge. In other words "skirting" is something that skirts, it is NOT an act.

One of the most common noun-verb errors is the use of LOAN when LEND is meant. You do not LOAN something, you LEND it.

Last week I was watching a football game and one of the commentators in describing a play actually said, "He was efforting to the ball". I nearly had a stroke.

[Caultron]

I guess we're just innovators.

(It's tempting to make a deliberate grammatical mistake here, but I guess I wont.)

[dillon]

I was out trousering today cutting and splitting another load of firewood...

[BobM]

I guess we're just innovators.

(It's tempting to make a deliberate grammatical mistake here, but I guess I wont.)

Why not? The thread title is "Just for fun".

[crfriend]

Why do many people describe the act of wearing a skirt as "skirting"? Would one ever say whilst wearing trousers, "I am panting"? Or "I pant sometimes"?

I rather suspect it's a way of communicating something that's otherwise unusual. Wearing trousers is nothing remarkable for a guy, so it would be odd to hear him describe himself as "panting" unless he was very badly out of shape.

What we have here is another example of improperly using a noun as a verb. If one is, say, circumnavigating a lake while wearing a skirt he can rightly say that he is 'skirting' the lake because that is an action and the verb form is appropriate. He could say, "I skirted the lake while skirted", but not "I skirted the lake while skirting".

How about, "I skirted the lake skirted"?

"Verbing" nouns is something that, whilst officially "frowned upon" is routinely done in the English language, and, just for the record, much of it makes me cringe.

One of the most common noun-verb errors is the use of LOAN when LEND is meant. You do not LOAN something, you LEND it.

Unless, of course it was something you did in the past, e.g. "I lent it to him for Lent" but that gives rise to yet another form of confusion.

Last week I was watching a football game and one of the commentators in describing a play actually said, "He was efforting to the ball". I nearly had a stroke.

"Efforting the ball"? Is that anything like "humping" (itself a perfectly valid railroad term)?

Yes, indeed, I love the English language. It can, at a stroke, be exacting and precise, and then completely imprecise and obfuscating. By the time one factors in trans-oceanic slang, obsolete meanings, and other sources of amusement, it's possible to say something that is entirely and precisely factual and have it comprehensible to no-one; by the same token, it's also possible to have one heck of a lot of fun with it, e.g. a crack I made to a pal of mine several years ago, "Get that fag out of your mouth!" (The speed with which other conversation stopped was hilarious.)

[Zorba]

Its my understanding that the English language is headed in this direction anyway. Apparently, Chinese is like this as well.

[skirtyscot]

I guess we're just innovators.

(It's tempting to make a deliberate grammatical mistake here, but I guess I wont.)

Why not? The thread title is "Just for fun".

Looks like he decided to make do with a punctuation error!

[renesm1]

I think that sports commentator is an efforting idiot!!!

[Nolyn]

By the time one factors in trans-oceanic slang, obsolete meanings, and other sources of amusement, it's possible to say something that is entirely and precisely factual and have it comprehensible to no-one;

My Dad enjoyed repeating the sentence: "Once you were behind, before; now you are first at last! How is it that you are so early of late?"

[Tor]

My Dad enjoyed repeating the sentence: "Once you were behind, before; now you are first at last! How is it that you are so early of late?"

Very nice example of saying something simple as incomprehensibly as possible using entirely ordinary words. Even I had to work to understand its meaning.