I have seen an increasing use of the word ‘invite’ to replace ‘invitation’. The distinction between the two words seemed pretty clear to me. One invites someone by sending them an invitation. And yet the latter word seems to be disappearing, with the former taking its place, with people saying things like “Hope you got my invite” and “The invites have gone out”.
I find this use jarring. I thought that it was simply wrong but on checking the Oxford English Dictionary it appears that the word invite can be used as a noun this way and has been thus used since the 17th century.
Was this usage common and I just did not notice it until recently or did it fall out of favor and is now coming back?
I think it’s a recent trend. Even more annoying to me is the use of “spend” as a noun in place of “expense”, generally in business circles.
For better and for worse, the nouning of of verbs is an age-old and quite strong tendency in English. The results are seldom esthetically pleasing to my taste either, but maybe Mano and I are just crusty old guys.
Paul,
I haven’t heard that, maybe because I am do not move in business circles. How do they use it? Do they call things “spend reports”? “That is a large spend”?
That sounds really weird.
Another common usage in business circles that I’ve seen is “I’ll revert to you on that topic” meaning “I’ll get back to you on that topic.” It irritates the hell out of me.
But then, to the greeting “Hi, how are you?”, the response “I’m good.” is annoying since it is bad grammar. The grammatically correct response should be “I’m fine.”
Maybe my irritation is because I, too, am older and grew up in India with British English in vogue in those ancient days when the internet was not there to create instant Wikipedia experts.
All this talk about ‘proper’ grammar smacks of elitism and makes me sick.
English is a constantly evolving language and lends itself to new words and uses. I dont care if ‘misremember’ is really a word or not. I understand the point.
Funny how grammar seems to be something that us still held into by some to help separate classes.
Henry,
The aim of communication is to convey our thoughts and ideas to others. Improper usage of words (revert is used wrongly, invite as a noun is unusual, etc.) force one to stop and think for a moment to figure out what the speaker is saying. This interrupts the flow of thought and the ability of the listener to focus on the matter. That is why it is important to use words correctly and to have a semblance of grammar in our work.
I do not think it is elitist to expect decent grammar from speakers and writers, especially in a semi-formal environment like the workplace. If language evolves over time, there will be an interval of time needed for people to become familiar with the new usage.
Language should be a mixture of normative rules and should also evolve with time based on common usage. That does not mean one should accept every new change that comes along. Time will sort out what becomes acceptable and what does not. There is nothing wrong in complaining about new usage if one does not see merit in them.
Of course…worse yet is the young crowd that exchange greetings with high fives and shoulder-rubs. I bet in 100 years we will have a system of grunts in place instead of the normal “Hello, How are you?”
I haven’t heard “spend reports”, but “That is a large spend” is about right.
As for prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar, I’d largely agree with Ravi. People are certainly free to break the rules, and that can either help or hinder the effectiveness of communication. The better you understand the rules, the more effectively you can communicate, even when breaking them.
Mano,
Resurgence in using invite as a noun is likely a web phenomenon and separate from the seemingly obsolete 17th century version that you are referring to. For various reason it is common for social websites to have an “invite” function where it sends out some sort of invitation e-mail to another person for you. This could be any type of invitation: an invitation to a social event or just an invitation to join the website yourself.
Somehow this type of feature has come to be called an “invite”. So if you send an e-mail to someone inviting them to your house that is simply an invitation but if you use facebook to invite over a bunch of people to a registered facebook event than it is a “facebook invite” or just an “invite” that you are sending.
I don’t particularly like or dislike this usage but it is pretty entrenched now, so I doubt it is going away any time soon.
There is a rather famous calvin and hobbes strip on these lines:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_I0JyZiMKuh0/R0SsGMbc7qI/AAAAAAAAAEM/wadQnwbHbJ4/s1600-h/verbing-sm-01.jpg
Jared,
Thanks for the C&H comic. I am sure that I will use it!
Thanks for sharing the difference between the word “invites” and “invitation”. Have you noticed that so many dailynewspaper doing the same mistakes they supposed to not do.