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RSSThat Annoying New Verb “disrespect”
Reader Erica Richards, commenting on the post about the abomination “a few stuff,” was not so sanguine as I about teenagers outgrowing appalling usage:
The trend I’m seeing is that poor grammar habits are not only perpetuated into adulthood, but can be treated as an accepted form of speech used on TV or the radio. I suspect that eventually it is accepted as proper grammar . . . The most notable example is the current vernacular use of “disrespect” as a verb, as in “he disrespected me”. Sounds like nails on a blackboard to me, however, it’s all over the media.
Well, I feel the same way about disrespect used as a verb. It flies all over me when I hear it and I was about to write a post about how ridiculous, unidiomatic and unnecessary the usage is.
Before I did, however, I looked it up in the OED. I didn’t expect to find it or, if it was there, I expected it to be labeled an Americanism.
This is what I found.
disrespect: v. trans. The reverse of to respect; to have or show no respect, regard, or reverence for; to treat with irreverence. Hence disrespected ppl. a., -ing vbl. n.
Not only is disrespect in the OED as a verb, its use as a verb goes back to the seventeenth century.
1614 WITHER Sat. to King, Juvenilia (1633) 346 Here can I smile to see..how the mean mans suit is dis-respected.
1633 BP. HALL Hard Texts N.T. 11 If he love the one he must disrespect the other.
1683 CAVE Ecclesiastici 231 (Basil) To honor him, and dis-respect his Friend, was to stroke a man’s head with one hand, and strike him with the other.
1706 HEARNE Collect. 26 Apr., He was disrespected in Oxford by several men who now speak well of him.
1852 L. HUNT Poems Pref. 27 As if..sorrow disrespected things homely.
1885 G. MEREDITH Diana I. 257 You will judge whether he disrespects me.
Some of us may feel that “disrespect” as a verb is a despicable neologism, but it isn’t.
Erica, your observations about the way incorrect usage filters into the media are valid, but it looks as if we’ll have to bite the bullet on disrespect as a verb.
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I would take dishonored as an example of word usage similar to disrespected.
- His actions dishonored the flag/his word/his family/the unit.
Why would dishonored be expected usage, and disrespected be suspect?
I suspect racial prejudice has something to do with it. “Disrespect” is often used as a verb in the African American dialect.
So….let’s see: “Before I did, however, I looked it up in the OED. I didn’t expect to find it or, if it was there, I expected it to be labeled an Americanism.” AND “Some of us may feel that “disrespect” as a verb is a despicable neologism, but it isn’t.” Are you suggesting Americanisms are despicable? Pretty tacky. Americanisms are just as valid as, say, Britishisms in language.
I’m shocked. Shocked!!
That usage has always bugged me. Another one that grates is the use of “anymore” in positive senteces.
Guess I need a copy of the OED as I couldn’t find disrespect as a verb in either of my dictionaries. I stand corrected and will live with it!
aw shucks! and here I was …waiting to pounce on this awful usage…and what did I get….nothing but disrespect…
“Disrespect(ed)” as a verb clangs in my ears, but “dissed” (can we call “dissed” a back formation?) doesn’t bother me. “My bad” is useful, too, especially when accompanied with the tapping-the-chest hand gesture of apology.
It may be street slang, but it’s pure communication.
Well, all words are despicable neologisms at some time or other in history. I guess the longer it’s been around, the more respect it gets – a linguistic version of ‘respect the elderly’. Or, conversely, ‘disrespect the young’.
An example that immediately came to mind when I read this post (and the one on “a few stuff” – eek!) was the new use of “versed” – as in when talking about a game (for example, England vs. Australia) you sometimes hear particularly children and teens talking about who “versed” whom or who were they “versing”. I recently heard my 6 year old nephew talk about a team he “versed” at school. It may be a local thing but I hope it doesn’t catch on!
Pamela, And here I was thinking that the well versed person would leverage their team’s strengths to vie with their opponent in a vigorous and sportsmanlike manner.
Now I find one verses them.
(I hate verbing leverage, etc.)
But just think of the wondrous scope of language just beginning to open up. Not only have national news channels grown from three (3) or four (4) in the last forty (40) years, but with computers synthesizing speech, I imagine that allowing the verbing of all kinds of words will result is a plethora of dialects and new word usages. Next thing will be unrestrained nouning, I guess.
(Is the practice of using the number words, followed by the digits form in parentheses, an early form of HTML ALT text?)