DailyWritingTips

Verb Words

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I’m always interested in words that relate to a particular area. A couple of weeks ago, I looked at words for book lovers. Now it’s time to think of words about words. In this case, I’m concentrating on one particular Latin root, verbum, the Latin word for word. That has spawned a number of other words in English, such as:

  • verb (14th century, meaning word)
  • verbal (relating to words, oral, relating to verbs)
  • verbalism (an expression, phrase or word; an emphasis on the importance of words; a cliche)
  • verbalist (someone who deals in words instead of facts, or who is skilled in using words)
  • verbalize (to put into words, or to change a word into a verb)
  • verbatim (word for word)
  • verbiage (excessive and meaningless use of words)
  • verbose (wordy)

Here are some quotations from newspapers:

… by – of all purists – The New York Times (You’ve come a long way, baby): ”It is complained that the President is too verbose and too vague. But this is … to miss entirely the point of popular acceptance. In the President’s misty language … (www.nytimes.com)

… time, for then we had nothing to lose and a vision to gain. Today it is not quite the same. It is a time of tons of verbiage, activity, and consumption. Which condition is better for the world at large I will not venture to discuss. But … (www.theguardian.com)

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12 thoughts on “Verb Words”

  1. In your list of verb words, you miss the one of verbing, made famous by Calvin and Hobbes: “I like to verb words.” “What?” asked Hobbes. “I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when ‘access’ was a thing? Now it’s something to do. It got verbed. Verbing weirds (sic) language.”

  2. i am student of journlism and mass communication. i am feeling week in wrinting. i want to improve language skills

  3. Hello:
    i help me please that what is (verb word)i faced with this problem in Toffal ook thanks.

  4. I always have trouble with using “the”. I end up not using it at all or using it at non-required places.
    Any ideas when should i use ‘the’??

    I would really appreciate it.

    Thanks,

  5. For example, if I say, “Let’s read the book,” I mean a specific book. If I say, “Let’s read a book,” I mean any book rather than a specific book. Here’s another way to explain it: The is used to refer to a specific or particular member of a group. For example, “I just saw the most popular movie of the year.” There are many movies, but only one particular movie is the most popular. Therefore, we use the

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