Nouns describe a person, place, or thing, while verbs represent actions. That’s simple enough — until people start using words as different parts of speech. Consider the millennial trend of turning “adult” into “adulting.” While it may seem like an internet phenomenon, “verbing” — the practice of turning nouns into verbs — is not new. Think “dress,” “style,” “table,” “mail,” “medal,” and more. Here are some nouns that have turned into verbs, both long ago and more recently.
The moon isn’t just nature’s spotlight. “Moon” has multiple meanings and functions in language, both as a verb and as a noun. “To moon” means “to dream” and “to be idle.” It can also imply idle behavior along with daydreaming, such as missing important tasks while mooning over a celebrity crush.
As a secondary verb usage, “mooning” has a more vulgar meaning. If you moon someone physically, you have pulled your pants down and shown your bare behind.
In the early days of Facebook, we used to request that someone be our friend on the social media site. But “send me a friend request” was too long and made it seem as if there were a long bureaucratic process. So instead, you would meet someone and say, “Friend me.“Across other social media networks, this has evolved into a shorthand of “add me.”
Remember the good old days when “ghost” simply referred to a spooky spirit? These days, the term “ghost” also can refer to ending a relationship abruptly by cutting off all communication without explanation. You can ghost someone else, or be ghosted by your crush or friend.
You’re probably thinking of the creepy-crawly spiders you find around the house. Spiders are more than just unwelcome guests — they eat and help control more harmful critters and insects, such as mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, clothes moths, and bed bugs. But it’s the spider’s movements that led to the word becoming a verb.
“To spider” means “to move in a scuttling manner,” the same way a spider does. The verb can also mean “to trap something,” just like spiders ensnare flies in their web.
The origins of “buttonhole” as a verb are debated. The word may be literal, as in a button being pushed through a small hole, but it also may be a misuse of the word “button-hold,” which means “to grasp the front of someone’s shirt.”
As for what “buttonhole” means, it’s something likely everyone has experienced. “To buttonhole” someone is to pin them down in a conversation they don’t want to have. If you’ve ever been caught in a long one-on-one lecture you couldn’t escape, you were buttonholed.
“Bookmark” can refer to a physical object that keeps your spot in a book when you’re reading, but these days you also have a bookmark option on your computer or device, which allows you to save certain websites. Now you can bookmark a webpage to peruse later.
