Comments on: In Your Land are These Verbs?

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:30:49 +0000

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.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:20:33 +0000

‘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.

By: E

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:26:05 +0000

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!

By: Laura Herbertson

Laura Herbertson — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:50:58 +0000

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

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:11:21 +0000

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?

By: Chanel-wa

Chanel-wa — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:31:56 +0000

Oh! And I’m USian, as you say.

By: Chanel-wa

Chanel-wa — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:31:07 +0000

I like to monster in my free time. Hehe.

By: cuileann

cuileann — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:23:50 +0000

Oops, sorry. I’m a USian.

By: cuileann

cuileann — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:23:55 +0000

Never heard of either of them as verbs!

By: Snaz

Snaz — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:45:13 +0000

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.

By: me

me — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:13:12 +0000

“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.

By: Janette

Janette — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:53:01 +0000

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.

By: pixelfish

pixelfish — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:33:25 +0000

I have never verbed either of those.

By: Electric Landlady

Electric Landlady — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:31:03 +0000

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.)

By: Desdemona

Desdemona — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:47:15 +0000

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.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:32:37 +0000

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.

By: Laura Herbertson

Laura Herbertson — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:23:47 +0000

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.

By: Serafina Zane

Serafina Zane — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:38:29 +0000

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.

By: capt. cockatiel

capt. cockatiel — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:40:02 +0000

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.

By: beth

beth — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:25:04 +0000

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.

By: beth

beth — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:23:55 +0000

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.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:49:27 +0000

Oh. Western Ohio be my area.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:48:45 +0000

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.

By: Susan Adrian

Susan Adrian — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:25:20 +0000

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

By: Jedi

Jedi — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:21:53 +0000

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

All nouns are verbs.