“The real ask, then is not how “the big reveal” got its make, but rather, why is it such a startle? What caused the vanish of so many perfectly good nouns?”
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Language Log: With a magical gesture, reveal the vanish… //
Interesting article on the verbing of nouns (“zero derivation nouns”) which I happened upon while seeking to assuage my irrational anger over a formal usage of the (apparently historically acceptable) noun ask.
