Monday, February 06, 2006

Pet Peeve

Pet Peeve


In my world "evidence" and "reference" are still nouns. Please smack me if you hear/see me use them as verbs. Thank you.

3 comments:

Ianqui said...

Both are OK in science, but I can give you the former. However, unlike Ancarett, I think "reference" is OK..."I referenced that paper in my manuscript" is NOT the same as "I referred to that paper". (On the other hand, perhaps 'cite' is the right word instead, but 'refer' is not.)

Anonymous said...

I *might* use reference as a verb, but I couldn't imagine the other. But guess what? The OED online has 'reference' as a verb from the late 19th century and 'evidence' from the 17th century (although a lot of the usages for the latter are given as obsolete. And after all in the 17th century they used to call witnesses 'evidences'). So they're not so new after all.

The first usage of 'to trial' (grrr), on the other hand, is 1981. The 1980s have a lot to answer for.

Another Damned Medievalist said...

grrrrr......








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