Ugh. While proofreading Big Company’s newsletter the other day, I saw that the CEO talked about competitors having “offshored” parts of their processes. One of my pet peeves is turning perfectly decent nouns into verbs. “Tasking” a group with coming up with a strategy sets my teeth on edge. “Offshoring” is another one.
Having written the column for him (from his speaking notes), I knew he had deliberately changed the phrase to say “offshoring,” so I was forced to let it go. But I found it as painful to read as “win-win” or “utilize,” two other words you won’t find in my writing.
It’s true that language evolves and I suppose we can look forward to finding “offshore” and “task” as verbs in the dictionary soon. Must take deep calming breaths!
