RE: FW: the old insure ensure assure

["Boudreaux, Madelyn (GE Healthcare, consultant)" <MadelynBoudreaux -at- ge -dot- com>]

On Behalf Of Janet Swisher:

>Hmm. My OED derives the verb "man" from the same Old English root as
the 
>noun "man". One could make the argument that the Old English word
referred 
>to any human being, regardless of gender. But the "manos"
>derivation sounds fishy to me.
>
>That said, using "person" as a verb in this context is just silly when 
>"staff" is a perfectly good gender-neutral equivalent.

Hmmm. Both "manning" and "staffing" sound to my sensitized ears like
yesteryear's example of someone verbing* a noun.

I wonder if some ancestor of mine was beating her head against a wall,
thinking, "'Man' is a noun, not a verb! AIGH!" Nowadays, of course,
they're perfectly acceptable and correct, which means one day,
"incentivize," will probably be juuuust fine, too. 

- Madelyn

* Ooops, I just did it, too! I feel like I'm caught in a Monty Python
movie, rather than just the only contractor at work today. 
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