Justine Larbalestier

Comments

1. Robyn Hook Says:

   Monster used as verb[from Oz] “Miss Kitty is trying to monster me from the computer chair.” “Miss Kitty stood on my pillow and monstered me till I let her out.”These are factual sentences!

   July 25th, 2008 at 12:08 AM

2. lili Says:

   i would use ‘whiteant’ as a verb but never ‘monster’.

   “I was totally in with a chance with him until his bastard brother whiteanted me”.

   I is from melbourne, oz!

   July 25th, 2008 at 12:50 AM

3. Laura Goodin Says:

   Monster, no. Whiteant, yes, in a play (boss to disgruntled employee: “Why are you always whiteanting me?”). I’m an expatriate American who’s been living in Wollongong for 12 years. No, nearly 13 now.

   – Laura

   July 25th, 2008 at 12:57 AM

4. Sir Tessa Says:

   Monster, yes. I can’t say I’ve heard of whiteant before.

   July 25th, 2008 at 1:10 AM

5. rebecca Says:

   no, but i am usian, so that’s probably no surprise. i’ve never heard “whiteant” before, verb or otherwise.

   July 25th, 2008 at 1:13 AM

6. Tim Pratt Says:

   Monster, yes — though I picked it up not from my native American Southern culture but from Warren Ellis’s Transmetropolitan comic, where the protagonist is known to shout “Let’s go monstering!” In that context, to “monster” someone is to endlessly hound them with unwelcome and embarrassing questions. (Or to just generally raise hell and abuse people.) I’ve never even heard of whiteanting, though…

   July 25th, 2008 at 1:13 AM

7. marrije Says:

   the results of the dutch jury:

   - monster: yes. though we do add ‘en’ to the end of the word to make it a verb, so it becomes ‘monsteren’. It would mean either sampling or inspecting closely. there’s also ‘aanmonsteren’, which means taking a job on a ship.

   - whiteant: no. mostly because we don’t have white ants, i think (thank god for that!). we do have ‘mieren’, which would be ‘to ant’. this means to fidget, to worry or to whinge. example: ‘zit niet zo te mieren’ (which could mean any of the three possibilities i mentioned, now that i think about it).

   and the new design looks excellent! my compliments.

   July 25th, 2008 at 1:34 AM

8. Cameron Says:

   My understanding
   Whiteant = undermine. I worked in the Victorian Public Service, we used it all the time.

   Monster = intimidate. I don’t use it, but it was fairly common around my football club (the real football – not that round ball or wombat rugby rubbish ).

   What it the correct syntax for . Should it go inside the bracket? If so, should a space be left? Does ) mean smile with a double chin?

   July 25th, 2008 at 2:42 AM

9. Chris Lawson Says:

   I would never use monster as a verb unless I was trying to be off-kilter. Conversely, whiteant is only a verb to me.

   July 25th, 2008 at 4:26 AM

10. David Moles Says:

    I’ve only run across “monster” as a verb in Chris Mackey and Greg Miller’s The Interrogators (which is better and more nuanced than you’d think from the subtitle). More or less they use it to mean “intimidate”, but it’s a lot more specific — Amazon Search Inside the Book will find it for you. Don’t know where they’ve got it.

    And I’ve never even seen a white ant.

    July 25th, 2008 at 5:22 AM

11. David Moles Says:

    (Oh, sample sentence: “You’ve got to get right in there and monster them.”)

    July 25th, 2008 at 5:23 AM

12. lotti Says:

    In New Zealand?

    Whiteant: no, never heard of it
    Monster: sometimes used here (at rugby matches, mostly, sort of how David Moles used it)

    However a verb that is quite common here would be “munt”. It gets on my nerves, but many, many people use it. As in:

    Mwa ha ha, I shall munt you

    July 25th, 2008 at 6:32 AM

13. robin Says:

    I’ve never heard either of those used as verbs in the US (I’ve never heard “whiteant” period). However, I now plan to start monstering things forthwith,

    July 25th, 2008 at 9:37 AM

14. Julia Rios Says:

    No, never. I grew up in Southern California, and remember ads for monster tacos (meaning big, said in stereotypical SoCal surfer voice), but that’s adjectival. Never heard of whiteant.

    July 25th, 2008 at 9:49 AM

15. Patrick Says:

    Monster is an adjective.

    July 25th, 2008 at 10:07 AM

16. Jedi Says:

    Actually, monster is a noun. This means that monster is also a verb, because guess what?

    All nouns are verbs.

    July 25th, 2008 at 10:21 AM

17. Susan Adrian Says:

    Nope, never heard either used as a verb, and never heard “whiteant” at all. California/Montana.

    July 25th, 2008 at 10:25 AM

18. Ann Says:

    I’ve never used nor heard either of them used that way. Monster is a noun, occasionally a adjective. I’ve never heard of whiteant before.

    July 25th, 2008 at 11:48 AM

19. Ann Says:

    Oh. Western Ohio be my area.

    July 25th, 2008 at 11:49 AM

20. beth Says:

    I’ve never heard of either of these as verbs. Funnily enough, I just made a post about language on my blog, where I talked about having heard the word “beast” as a verb, as in “I beasted that test.” But I’ve not heard of monster, and I’ don’t even know what a whiteant is.

    July 25th, 2008 at 12:23 PM

21. beth Says:

    PS–I live in the western/southern part of North Carolina. A true Southern, country girl, which might have something to do with my limited slang.

    July 25th, 2008 at 12:25 PM

22. capt. cockatiel Says:

    No to both for me (and most deffo no to whiteant, since I have never heard of that word before in my life). I’m from Washington State.

    July 25th, 2008 at 12:40 PM

23. Serafina Zane Says:

    Well, in New Jersey I can’t come up with a specific example of “monster” as a verb, but I could kind of see it as one. But I’m also the kind of person who uses all words as verbs, because it’s fun.
    Miles (distance)? Verb! Any word that could theoretically describe speech? Dialouge verb! Anything that’s not a verb already? Verb!

    Whiteant, on the other hand, I’ve never heard of, verb or otherwise. My spell check doesn’t even think it’s a verb. Then again, this is firefox spell check, which doesn’t think “firefox” is a word.

    July 25th, 2008 at 1:38 PM

24. Laura Herbertson Says:

    From Pennslyvania,

    No, I can’t say I’ve heard monster used as a verb that often. My husband calls me monster as a term of endearment. I like it actually. After all, who doesn’t want a monster on their side? Sure the Cloverfield monster was scary, but what if it was your best friend?

    Never heard of “whiteant”. Not as a verb, noun, adjective, or any other article of speech.

    What about you? Do you have luke as a verb? As in “She luked the beer because it had gotten warm.”
    It means to leave a drink mostly filled. A major party foul, in my opinion.

    July 25th, 2008 at 3:23 PM

25. Dave Says:

    I’m from metro Detroit, and I’ve never heard either of those used as a verb. I’ve never even seen the word “whiteant” before.

    July 25th, 2008 at 3:32 PM

26. Desdemona Says:

    I’m from Pennsylvania and have never heard of monster as a verb, although I have heard of beast as someone else mentioned but I think it means something different than what people are saying monster means, or whiteant period.

    July 25th, 2008 at 3:47 PM

27. Electric Landlady Says:

    No, never heard either of those as a verb, and never heard “whiteant” at all.

    I’m from Canada but spent time in Kenya as a child, if that helps…

    (oooh, invisible cursor is really disorienting.)

    July 25th, 2008 at 4:31 PM

28. pixelfish Says:

    I have never verbed either of those.

    July 25th, 2008 at 5:33 PM

29. Janette Says:

    I’ve used monster as a verb – only about sport, as in “Nadal monstered Federer at Roland Garros. It means beat really badly, thrash, that sort of thing, to me anyway. I’ve never heard the word whiteant before. I’m a New Zealander who’s been living in Canada for 10 years.

    July 25th, 2008 at 6:53 PM

30. me Says:

    “There are: Borers in the door, whiteants in the floor, silverfish galore”.
    Get a Flick man, that’s the answer. Remember, one flick and the’re gone.

    July 25th, 2008 at 9:13 PM

31. Snaz Says:

    Whiteant absolutely. Used it just last week, even though those vowels cuddling up like that make me a little nervous. I am from Oz.

    Monster I don’t use myself, but it’s a verb I might give to a character to say. Someone older and officious, probably.

    July 25th, 2008 at 9:45 PM

32. cuileann Says:

    Never heard of either of them as verbs!

    July 25th, 2008 at 11:23 PM

33. cuileann Says:

    Oops, sorry. I’m a USian.

    July 26th, 2008 at 5:23 AM

34. Chanel-wa Says:

    I like to monster in my free time. Hehe.

    July 26th, 2008 at 12:31 PM

35. Chanel-wa Says:

    Oh! And I’m USian, as you say.

    July 26th, 2008 at 12:31 PM

36. Jonathan Says:

    I’m Australian, and recognise them both as verbs. I wonder how all the USianswho’ve never seen the word whiteant wold pronounce it: Why-teen-t, perhaps? Or witty-ant?

    July 28th, 2008 at 2:11 AM

37. Laura Herbertson Says:

    I’ve never heard whiteant said aloud. I’d pronounce it as white-ant, as in an albino insect. That’s not right?

    July 28th, 2008 at 7:50 AM

38. E Says:

    In the northeast US, I’d never heard of whiteant ever, and hadn’t considered monster as a verb…but all nouns eventually get used as verbs (“we must Netflix the Star Trek movie with the whales” “Yeah, I Amazoned Weetzie Bat last week”), and it turns out I already monster without being aware that that’s what I’ve been doing (“I monstered my boyfriend until he took me to breakfast”). Hooray for monstering!

    July 28th, 2008 at 9:26 AM

39. Ellen Says:

    ‘To monster’ is a verb used by select groups in the UK – specifically LARPers (Live Action RolePlayers), describing the playing of monsters (rather than Player Characters) in organised LARP events. I have monstered once, despite not being a LARPer. It was quite fun, and very strange.

    July 29th, 2008 at 6:20 AM

40. Jane Says:

    I’ve also only heard of the Warren Ellis-Transmetropolitan form of monstering. Which is, to quote, “the art of abusing people. Of ambushing them with questions, following them with questions, hounding them with questions, driving them to their f***ing graves with questions. It’s sort of being like a photographer, except we’ve never yet killed any royalty doing it…yet.”

    And yes, the character who says it is a journalist.

    July 30th, 2008 at 12:30 AM

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.