A list of a candidate’s qualifications for a recent appointment included the following:
“She currently carousels on numerous committees.”
This verbified noun took me by surprise. I thought carousels were are either merry-go-rounds or movable screens on a website or phone.
I suppose the intention was to suggest that the person had lots of experience and was much in demand, but doesn’t a merry-go-round just go round and round until someone else stops it to let you off? I’m not sure carouselling in the career sense will last.
However, one that’s much in the news at the moment, and which may be for some time, is “transitioning”. That’s away from fossil fuels, not to a new identity.
There’s nothing new about verbification, turning nouns into verbs. What counts is whether the new verbs are useful. In fact, we should welcome new verbs.
Where would we be without the verb “to google”? And one that has grown on me is “to access”, which crossed the Atlantic some time ago and is so much more efficient than “to gain access to”.
Similarly “He elbowed me out of his way” is more graphic than “He pushed me out of his way with his elbow.” Then there’s “She saddled me with a huge debt.” And so on.
Verbs are nearly always more expressive and more economical than nouns. I encourage anyone I’m training or coaching to put their meaning into a verb as often as possible. So instead of using a weak verb and a noun, as in “carry out an investigation”, say “investigate”; and instead of “We’re doing a redesign of our website”, just say “We’re redesigning our website”.
If you are indeed redesigning your website, I’d be happy to review it for you and suggest improvements.
Have a look at my website reviews page and prices, and contact me to discuss what you need.