Do you use "shop" as a verb?

DarthMol

DarthMol

New member
I've noticed this annoying trend with online retailers telling us to shop stuff - apparently we don't buy things anymore. My personal bias aside, this whole thing of using nouns as verbs is apparently quite a common feature in English language and has been for many years. I found this article to be an interesting read on the topic: Do you salad or sandwich? The verbing of English
This conversion of nouns to verbs is known as ‘verbing’ and it has been around for as long as the English language itself. Ancient verbs such as rain and thunder and more recent conversions such as access, chair, debut, highlight and impact were all originally used only as nouns before they became verbs. In his book, The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker tells us that ‘Easy conversion of nouns to verbs has been part of English grammar for centuries; it is one of the processes that makes English English.’
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Verbing exists essentially to make what we say shorter and snappier. It can also give a more dynamic sense to ideas.
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I kinda get that "shopping" something carries the nuance of "shopping around" as well as "buying" it. It just sounds so stupid to me, but I don't think the usage will disappear anytime soon and I'll have to learn to live with it.
 
DarthMol said:
I've noticed this annoying trend with online retailers telling us to shop stuff - apparently we don't buy things anymore. My personal bias aside, this whole thing of using nouns as verbs is apparently quite a common feature in English language and has been for many years. I found this article to be an interesting read on the topic: Do you salad or sandwich? The verbing of English




I kinda get that "shopping" something carries the nuance of "shopping around" as well as "buying" it. It just sounds so stupid to me, but I don't think the usage will disappear anytime soon and I'll have to learn to live with it.
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Shopping was around in the UK when I was there in 2004-2007, drove me mental. I am not a fan of making verbs out of nouns
 
First off, who said that Shop can't be a verb, too. It's man made rules, change it.
Second, you mentioned it's common feature in English, Where English is actually a crazy man's language. It's got the weirdest rules.
Here is an example.....just a tip of the iceberg, millions more examples exist:

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While I've never heard of "shop stuff", I don't see any problem at all with "shop for stuff". And shop IS a verb, its not being turned into one.

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Since we are on the topic of people using verbs as nouns! Why do people use colors to describe shapes?
 
If I do do do, it's subconscious.

I don't shop online, I buy from online shops.
 
Send in the bombers!



DarthMol said:
You are right in saying that - and I have no issue with that shop at or shop for. It's the replacement of "buy" with "shop" that sounds weird: e.g.
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Great. Now this is going to irk me as well. :(

beans100 said:
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How does Pony sound like Bologna? The correct Italian pronunciation sounds nothing like Pony. Or is this a case of:

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...because North Americans pronounce it as baloney? :rolleyes:
 
Btw, you can also totally sandwich things.

sandwich
transitive verb
1
: to make into or as if into a sandwich; especially : to insert or enclose between usually two things of another quality or character
2
: to make a place for —often used with in or between
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