Verbiation

I am intrigued and appalled by the verbiation of our language. Verbiation (coined by me about five minutes ago) is the transformation of a perfectly normal, workable noun into a verb.

For example, anyone born before 1980 would have easily identified "parent" as a noun. Of course, anyone born before 1980 probably learned what nouns were because education "back then"  emphasized the importance of grammar, word choice and phrasing. Synonyms for parent would have included father, mother, mom, dad or possibly progenitor for those fans of Roget. Back then we also recognized the need for synonyms, the meaning of metaphor and the purpose of allegory. Somehow, after the 80's when being a mom or a dad was not just a facet of one's life but a raison d'etre, "to parent" became an infinitive. Two parents, by the way, practically became an anachronism.

When we morphed from parents to ones who parent, the raising of children took on a competitive flair. Being a parent wasn't just something you did, it was something that you did BETTER than others or failed miserably at in comparison with others. Being a parent gave way to Parenting, the Sport. Ludicrous? I think so. I think our forbears who beat laundry on rocks, killed dinner, churned butter, harvested wheat and fought the elements would point out that their verbs involved a lot more action and a lot less one-upmanship.

Would anyone else care to bring to light any other victims of verbiation?

Di