On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 19:39:44 -0500, John Krische <john@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I hate to break it to you, but "task" has had a verb definition for over 2000 years. It comes from the Latin "taxare", ie, "to tax". "Tax" and "task" used to mean the same thing, in both the noun and verb senses. Using it in the verb sense just kind of fell out of fashion for a while in the 20th century is all. Heck, if you really think about it, what happened to taxare->task some 1500+ years ago (the change happened somewhere in the dark ages) is the exact opposite of what's currently happening in some circles with ask->axe. Following that line, simple mispronunciation by uneducated peasants in the dark ages may be the whole reason tax became task, and part of the regular lexicon. Lingual history is fascinating stuff, at least to me. -- snip -- > But enough of this. Later. > > John K. > > > > >When speaking of language destruction, I think one just has to mention > >the "verbing" of nouns (and I use that phrase deliberately). Is being > >"tasked" with something supposed to sound more important than being > >given an assignment? > > > >-- > >Keith Hunt > >keith@xxxxxxxxxx > > > > -- > fedora-list mailing list > fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx > To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list > Wow. Now I just feel stupid. But that's probably enough of this OT thread. -- Keith
