# Term for flip side of Gerund?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-flip-side-of-gerund/465035>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-flip-side-of-gerund/465035 "2008-09-24T18:30:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Alonzo\_John\_Blitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@Alonzo\_John\_Blitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonzo_John_Blitz)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-flip-side-of-gerund/465035/1 "2008-09-24T18:30:02Z")

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A gerund is a noun derived from a verb - as in _walking_ is good exercise; what do you call a verb derived from a noun - as in - don’t ask me, _google_ it (which I did and came up with zip.) Is there such a term? Thanks.

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-flip-side-of-gerund/465035/2 "2008-09-24T19:47:55Z")

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Years ago, a _Calvin and Hobbes_ cartoon had Calvin musing on how “verbing nouns weirds language.”

The [Handbook of Word-Formation](http://books.google.com/books?id=uAkB96vFnLYC&pg=PT282&lpg=PT282&dq=%22verbing+nouns+weirds+language&source=web&ots=6ch2nx-yGQ&sig=8B9Jwki2uEmr1q32v_tbCrrvw5g&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result) refers to the practice as zero-derivation and also quotes Calvin:

> [@](#):
>
> …you simply plop a word into a construction requiring the ‘wrong’ category and let people figure out what you mean.

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**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-flip-side-of-gerund/465035/3 "2008-09-24T20:46:55Z")

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This is an article about verbing nouns: [http://www.stcboston.org/archives/articles/nouns.shtml](http://www.stcboston.org/archives/articles/nouns.shtml) (suggests there is no term)

And a list of verbed nouns: [http://www.wordspy.com/index/Language-VerbedNouns.asp](http://www.wordspy.com/index/Language-VerbedNouns.asp)

Suggests “verbing”: [Verbing Nouns](http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/verbing.html)

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**Author:** ![Alonzo\_John\_Blitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@Alonzo\_John\_Blitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonzo_John_Blitz)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-flip-side-of-gerund/465035/4 "2008-09-24T21:27:59Z")

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Thanks, guys. You’ve answered my question.

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**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-flip-side-of-gerund/465035/5 "2008-09-24T22:26:16Z")

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Except that a gerund is just a verb form that is used as a noun (or part of a noun phrase). Gerunds also refer to the action the verb describes. It’s distinct from a verb being used as a noun. In those cases the noun’s meaning is often either an object of that verb or some thing that performs the verb.

It is less common for verbs to become nouns than the reverse, but it happens. “Hire” is a fairly recent example (I think). Others have been around quite a while, like “turn” or “bend” and lots like that. Plus, there’s the obsolete ones, like “ask”, “think”, or “say”.