[…] Is ‘invite’ acceptable as a noun? examines a disputed nominalisation, including its use in different registers and the criticism it has received from language authorities: […]
Thanks. So, when did “ask” become a noun?
Hi Karen. It’s a bit of an ask to determine when ‘ask’ became a noun (see what I did there?) but I’ll have a go (and there…). People were complaining about the nouning of ‘ask’ in the mid 2000s, when it was seen as a piece of techie/business jargon, on a par with actioning decisions and the like. A Google ngram search shows that the phrase ‘a big ask’ seems to have popped up almost out of nowhere in about 1990, but that’s only in written sources, so it may have been in use in the spoken language before then. The best discussion I have found is one by Arnold Zwicky on Language Log from 2008; he finds uses dating right back to the 11th century and covers the word’s 21st century re-emergence in great detail: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=340
Gill Francis also wrote a helpful post here a few years ago on ask and other nounings (and whether and when dictionaries should include them).
Thank you Liz and Stan. Interestingly, I noticed that the dictionary hasn’t caught up yet. I didn’t find an entry for “ask” as a noun like invite has. I’m sure it will in time, though.
Hi Karen. The noun ‘ask’ is covered here: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/ask_2. And I can exclusively reveal that the coverage of this entry will be extended in the forthcoming release of the dictionary some time around the turn of the year, so do keep an eye out.
Thanks again, Liz!
John E. McIntyre at the Baltimore Sun has followed up on this post with further commentary on grammar, morality, and the nature of standard/nonstandard English.
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[…] Is ‘invite’ acceptable as a noun? examines a disputed nominalisation, including its use in different registers and the criticism it has received from language authorities: […]
Thanks. So, when did “ask” become a noun?
Hi Karen. It’s a bit of an ask to determine when ‘ask’ became a noun (see what I did there?) but I’ll have a go (and there…). People were complaining about the nouning of ‘ask’ in the mid 2000s, when it was seen as a piece of techie/business jargon, on a par with actioning decisions and the like. A Google ngram search shows that the phrase ‘a big ask’ seems to have popped up almost out of nowhere in about 1990, but that’s only in written sources, so it may have been in use in the spoken language before then. The best discussion I have found is one by Arnold Zwicky on Language Log from 2008; he finds uses dating right back to the 11th century and covers the word’s 21st century re-emergence in great detail: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=340
Gill Francis also wrote a helpful post here a few years ago on ask and other nounings (and whether and when dictionaries should include them).
Thank you Liz and Stan. Interestingly, I noticed that the dictionary hasn’t caught up yet. I didn’t find an entry for “ask” as a noun like invite has. I’m sure it will in time, though.
Hi Karen. The noun ‘ask’ is covered here: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/ask_2. And I can exclusively reveal that the coverage of this entry will be extended in the forthcoming release of the dictionary some time around the turn of the year, so do keep an eye out.
Thanks again, Liz!
John E. McIntyre at the Baltimore Sun has followed up on this post with further commentary on grammar, morality, and the nature of standard/nonstandard English.