I realize that language does change over time, and the purpose of the dictionary is to record the current usage, not enforce it. That said, the losing battle I still fight is against the use of the word "impact" as a verb. Hearing that something "impacted" the economy will always make me wince, even though I realize the change has already taken place. This also makes me wonder which words I commonly use as verbs that made my parents' generation grind
their teeth. Should I
research it? Of course
google is an instant classic.
In the wake of the last big San Francisco earthquake (1992?) I was watching a newscaster describe the scene. I'll assume that she was rattled, but I still laughed when she said "We are
efforting to make contact with the rescue teams."
Anyway, here is a 1789 letter from Benjamin Franklin to Noah Webster, asking him to use is new dictionary to stop the insidious creeping usage of
advocate as a verb.
http://founders-blog.blogspot.com/20...ebster-jr.html
Speaking of apostrophes, I notice that in Franklin's day it was common to use one in the possesive "your's". Either that, or Franklin wasn't as good a writer as he thought he was. But then the dictionary was a brand new thing as well.