"Versus" becoming a verb?
I have a pair of teenage cousins who live in Texas whom I visited recently, and I found that when playing video games, they often use "versus" as a verb, re-analyzing it as "verses". For example, "You wanna verse me in Smash Bros.?", or "I'm about to verse the boss." We had a couple of cousins from another branch in the family who were visiting as well, and they picked up on this usage immediately, even though I had condemned it from the first time I heard it. (I'm usually a descriptivist, but some things do still get on my nerves!) My Texan cousins always dismissed my condemnations with a "whatever".
I expect it'll be a long time before this becomes mainstream usage, if indeed it ever does, but I wonder if anybody else has heard things like this. And I do wonder if Merriam-Webster will have this as a meaning of "verse" in 2200...
- Kef
<<I have a pair of teenage cousins who live in Texas whom I visited recently, and I found that when playing video games, they often use "versus" as a verb, re-analyzing it as "verses". For example, "You wanna verse me in Smash Bros.?", or "I'm about to verse the boss.">>
I'm speechless.
Anyway, I'm familiar with a similar phenomenon: in my high school math classes, tons of kids (perhaps most of them) would reanalyze "times" as a verb, and they would say things like "Times it by three" instead of "Multiply it by three". I think I even had a couple teachers that did it. This usage never came naturally to me, and it always bugged the heck out of me.
<<Anyway, I'm familiar with a similar phenomenon: in my high school math classes, tons of kids (perhaps most of them) would reanalyze "times" as a verb, and they would say things like "Times it by three" instead of "Multiply it by three". I think I even had a couple teachers that did it. This usage never came naturally to me, and it always bugged the heck out of me.>>
I've also heard "plus" and "minus" used in a similar way to mean "add" and "subtract".
All the kids where I live (California) use "verse" as a verb.
I have actually said this before, although I never made the connection with "versus." I figured it was similar to "school" as a verb: i.e. "I'm going to school you in tennis later."
It's a bit different. "Verse" just means to face someone in a competition, while "school" means to beat them badly.
My best friend throughout childhood used "verse" as a verb (mostly when playing video games.) I always thought it was just part of his idiolect; it's interesting to hear others report the same phenomenon. I grew up in California, BTW.
>>Anyway, I'm familiar with a similar phenomenon: in my high school math classes, tons of kids (perhaps most of them) would reanalyze "times" as a verb, and they would say things like "Times it by three" instead of "Multiply it by three"<<
This is normal in the UK, I would definitely say it. However I can see it could start to sound awkward in some constructions, namely the third person singular.
'If he timeses it by 4'. Hmmm, that sounds clumsy.
<<And I do wonder if Merriam-Webster will have this as a meaning of "verse" in 2200...>>
Based on the posts so far, it sounds like this usage is pretty common, so it behooves the dictionaries to include it long before 2200 (perhaps before 2010)?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=verse
2. verse
v. verse, versed, versing
to face off in a competitive two-player video game. The verb form of the word "versus," "vs." or "v."
I versed Michael in Street Fighter 2; needless to say, I won handily.
I can't, Mom, I'm busy versing Tom in Mario Golf at the moment!
Let's verse each other in Madden '05.
I wouldn't ever take Urban Dictionary seriously. I only use it either for amusement or when I see an apparent slang term whose meaning I can't figure out.
Still, it shows that this is already widespread. Merriam-Webster should include it far sooner than 2200.
All the kids where I live (North Carolina) use "verse" as a verb as well.