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Comment by panarky | Hacker News Reader

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panarky

> brief ask ... imprecise ask ... any ask ... receiving an ask ... clarify that ask

It's curious how "ask" has transformed from an ancient verb into a modern, trendy and awkward noun.

According to the OED, nounification began with colloquial usage in Australia.

https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?q=ask

We all know that language is a constantly changing biosocial cognitive artifact, so there really are no rules.

But this usage grates like chewing sand, especially when we have perfectly good synonyms just sitting there, unused.

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At one point, I was fastidiously replacing the word "ask" with "request" in every Google Doc I had edit access too.

I've since given up, it's just too overwhelming. For every "ask" I squash, there's 5 more being thrown at me in Slack and emails and Google Docs and Slides.

You can join me on my crusade changing 'utilize' to 'use'.

From an exhausted and humiliated veteran of the failed struggle against the verbification of "impact", you have my respect and sympathy.

I think that one is a direct result of people being pedants about the difference between effect and affect which made a lot of people try to avoid them completely.

My favorite is that affect and effect are also sometimes a noun and verb, respectively.

Knowing how to use all 4 (affect noun, affect verb, effect noun, effect verb) correctly feels like a superpower.

You're fighting the good fight.

That is nothing compared to the cringe I experience whenever I see people type "lead" when it really called for "led"; "He lead them into battle" instead of "He led them into battle." - I see that a lot these days.

Oh and speaking of "a lot", it makes me sad every time I see people using "alot". And that non-word gets used increasingly often. It's not like it's a typo or autocorrection. A lot of people unironically type "alot". Ugh!

EDIT: Lol, I received a downvote. I found the "alot" user. Or the "lead instead of led" user! Or perhaps I scored a double strike ;)

An old but good resource on coping with "alots": https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-bette...

If you ever go led climbing at night while listening to Led Zeppelin, you will probably want to bring a lead light, but not one powered by led assed sells, as that would way alot, probably to much.

A lot is annoying to swipe type on a phone. I know alot is not in the dictionary, but it will always be one of the first words I purposefully add to my user dictionary, right after all the cuss words.

I also find the usage annoying (probably because it’s corpspeak), but I made an executive decision to overrule my emotions on the matter because simplifying the common usage of the world’s lingua franca by having verbs do double duty is, in the long run, fine and good and useful. We already do it for “drive” and “run”. More gerunds is a good thing.

“request” is a word that can be a noun or a verb. Why can “request” be a noun, but “ask” should not?

Just remember that the noun "ask" begins with a T.

And that ancient and perfectly good noun has transmogrified into a modern, trendy and awkward corpspeak verb with nauseating echos of milspeak.

Agree, it's a little grating on the ears, but, language change is part of life! There are examples out there of modern nouns that used to be something else, but because the change happened so long ago, we're no longer pained to hear it changing.

For example, "Flirt" used to be a verb that meant to make a brisk, jerky motion. Now it is either a verb, to playfully act attracted to someone one, or a noun, a person who flirts.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/flirt

And "action" has made the reverse transition...

"Could you action this ask from Bob in Finance?"

Or the ever annoying "learning" instead of "lesson".

"Key learnings this quarter"...

In Australia I've only ever heard it used in the specific phrase "That's a big ask".

I feel it's used mostly as corporate jargon. "the ask is moving forward we will need to increase impact by taking initiative, driving solutions, and delivering value to our customers."

Same with "invite" used as a noun in place of "invitation".

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