“PCR” is not a verb. Neither is “PCR up”. “Amplify up” is closer, but still wrong.
You’re looking for “amplify”.
Just “amplify”.
That is all.
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rENNISance woman by Cath Ennis
Matt Brown said: "You can blog about whatever you wish, as long as it is related to science and research". His wish is my command! Here are some snippets from my life as a cancer research grant wrangler in Vancouver. Mostly the silly bits.
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Stop verbing things!
- Date:
- Saturday, 28 Mar ch 2009 - 19:34 UTC
Last updated: Saturday, 28 Mar 2009 - 19:34 UTC
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Comments
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Oh yeah and you’ll be visioning next, or perhaps incentivizing? I recall certain Canadian politicians were pretty terrible at verbing :)
Oh yeah and you’ll be visioning next, or perhaps incentivizing? I recall certain Canadian politicians were pretty terrible at verbing :)
Sorry about the double comment, must have been twicing or something…
How is “amplify all the way up to eleven”?
How’s the prototyping going, Katherine?
Bob, 11 kilobases? Ambitious ;)
Blogging?
From “web logging?” I think that’s OK…
Wait- what if when I was PCRing, I was reacting not reactioning (and I just wasn’t clear about my abbreviationing all these years)? :o)
well, I’ve been thinking about blue skying instead of blue sky thinking, and joined uping instead of joined up thinking, but at the moment I’m just wine-ing and DVDing.
Aww, come on, Cath. Or the misapplication of verbs. I always think “I’m doing a western…” is a bit, er, non-specific.
I’ve often wondered whether Ed Southern ever says “I’m doing a me”
I cannae take it any more, Captain!
To my mind, there is nothing wrong with nouns becoming into verbs as long as the meaning is clear. OK it may have generated a few cheesy-isms but I have been PCRing since the mid-nineties and have no intention of stopping. Language is a living thing. Are you about to give up kayaking Cath? Or what is the ‘correct’ verb for that? Boating? Paddling? Oh dear, it seems these verbified nouns are hard to get away from…! ;-P
But don’t take my word for it. Read Mr Fry’s views here for the voice of authority on these matters (or, better yet, just listen).
I have to agree in principle with Stephen’s reasoned response about language being dynamic and ‘living’ (although I will still take issue with the street signs one might see in certain parts of the USA, exhorting one to ‘GO SLOW’).
However, when I read your post initially, I was inwardly applauding. Science itself is (should be?) a language of precision, so describing things accurately, using the appropriate bits of the language provided, should be encouraged.
That’s my two cents’ worth. I’m off to re-purpose something or other.
I’m with Stephen all the way. Language is for using, and should be as muddy and messy as those toddlers in the Persil adverts. I’m partial to “PCR up” instead of “PCRing”, just because it somehow evokes big, beautiful glowing bands.
Verbing nouns isn’t bad. It’s their renounification that makes things a bit weird.
Yeah yeah, language evolves, blah blah blah ;)
I see your point, and again I agree in principle, but I just find “PCR” very clumsy as a verb. It’s not even any quicker to say than “amplify”. And it’s even worse when it’s written (and peer reviewed, and published).
During my time in industry I also had way too much exposure to the kind of management speak that Katherine mentioned. In my experience, people use these terms to make themselves sound more intelligent in a situation where they don’t really understand what’s going on.
And I use “I’m going kayaking” and “I’m going paddling” about equally… and never as often as I would like.
I prefer amplify too. “PCR reaction” also bugs me (in the same way the occasional use of APC complex does- stop repeating yourself!), but the “word” PCR has obviously taken on its own life and PC reaction would be confusing…Has kayaking really only been ‘verbed’ recently?
ATM machine, PIN number…
Social scientist have been the absolute masters of verbing for decades. One of my favourite is “problematize” (which describes the act of making something a problem, a most useful ability when you’re looking for a subject for your PhD dissertation)
You don’t believe me? Go ahead and google it! ;)
How did they idea that?
I’ve been thinking more about this, and I think the reason I don’t like “PCR” as a verb is that there was no need for a new word to replace “amplify”, which works just as well in the exact same context. Not to mention the fact that “I polymerase chain reactioned (or even reacted) up a band” just seems so… wrong.
Other recent (and not so recent) verbings do fulfill an unmet need though. How else would you say that you paddled a kayak? “I propelled my kayak using a paddle”.
(Premature “submit” alert there).
So the introduction of the verb “to paddle” streamlined the sentence without directly replacing another perfectly good word.
Now you’re just confusticating things.
Inspired by Matt’s call for slogans for the atheist bus…
ROFL!
But should it maybe say “Scientists wordify, we just can’t help it?”
I just saw this on a blog I found recently… I love the headline examples.
That’s excellent! Thanks Steffi!
Wordify, eh? That makes me think what a game of scientist scrabble would be like. The whole not in the dictionary thing would be out the window.
A sherrying in your direction.
Ta Chuck