Anthimeria
From KneeQuickie
Anthimeria is a trope where a word of one part of speech is used as if it was of another. For example, using a verb as a noun. Some languages, in particular minimalistic conlangs like Toki Pona, employ this trope fairly freely.
Contents |
Examples of anthimeria
English
- I'll unhair thy head. – Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
- Here hair, a noun, is used as a verb and takes the verbal un- prefix.
- I've got three yellows and a red.
- Here yellow and red, both adjectives, are used as nouns.
- Link me!
- Here link, a noun, is used as a verb meaning "give a link to".
- Verbing weirds language – Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes
- Here the noun verb and the adjective weird are used as verbs.
Newspeak
The condialect Newspeak from 1984 employs anthimeria heavily as a way to restrict vocabulary and by extension the range of human thought. The name itself provides an example, whereby the verb "speak" doubles as a noun meaning "language".
