One of our intrepid readers—let’s call him “Curtis”—writes in to complain about the nounification of certain verbs:

When did the word “disconnect” become a noun?  Has it always been a noun?  What is wrong with “disconnection?”  Do the two words, in noun form, convey two distinctively different things?…I heard it on NPR this morning so I had to ask.

Let’s take Curtis’s questions in order:

1. We believe it was the Nazis who first began using disconnect as a noun.
2. No, it wasn’t always so. See number 1 above.
3. Nothing whatsoever, except that it should be spelled thus: disconnexion.*
4. As a matter of fact, yes. Employing disconnect as a noun displays a willful and callous disregard for the Queen’s English; opting for disconnection in its stead demonstrates a firmer grasp of our language’s nuances than that of your average NPR reporter.

*H. W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (New York: Oxford UP, 1926) p. 739.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment