"-izing" nouns to make new words

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The other morning as I was shaving (these things always seem to hit me at unusual times and in odd places), I noticed a word on the can of shaving gel: lotionized. Being the grammar-obsessed type that I am, I was struck by this word and the writer's morphological skills. (Really, who writes the copy on things like shampoo bottles and cans of shaving cream? It makes me think of Elaine Benes, of Seinfeld fame, and her work as a writer for the J. Peterman clothing catalog. I know there are people who write this stuff and even make a living out of it, but how do they feel when they talk to others about their jobs? Anyway, I digress....)


Here we have a rather innocuous noun, lotion, that has a nice sound to it and conjures up images of moist, soft skin. I can just imagine the writer here, wanting to capture the sense of lotion but, likely due to space constraints (a can of shaving cream can only allow for so much text, after all), needing to do so concisely. And this is accomplished by simply changing the form of the word, adding the -ized suffix and voila, we have an adjective. Pretty innovative feature of the language, wouldn't you say? In a similar way, singers can harmonize, bankers can capitalize, relationships can formalize, and cars can be simonized. (OK, that last one is maybe a bit of a stretch.) Oh, and this blog, apparently, can be "monetized" (as the tab along the top of this editing window suggests). Wow.

1 comments:

Christy said...

I remember watching an ad for the TV show "My Boys" and the leading actress states that she was upset at her girlfriend because "all she wanted to do was spa and mall." Her brother (?) then comments directly on her "izing" a noun, by saying, "I like how all your verbs are actually nouns. I think I will couch after I sandwich for a while!"
At the time I saw this ad, I thought it was pretty hilarious and clever. Then, I was rather sad that the "perfectness" of the English language is finding another way to have slang and/or exceptions. Yet, as we discussed this in class, I find it fascinating that for the most part, all of the "izing" is understood. Is this as readily understood when English isn't a second language? Would an immigrant/visitor also understand and think it clever? Or would they just be frustrated that there now exists yet ANOTHER exception to the rule that they have to come to understand?

September 11, 2009 at 11:52 AM

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