"tex"

[DeadPoncy]

This is driving me mad. That is: "She tex me saying blah blah blah".

THERE ARE THREE WHOLE LETTERS AND A WHOLE TENSE MISSING!

"It's texTED!"

[BunnyLeBOOwski]

I've never seen this before and it's seriously making my teeth itch .

A customer from my pub tonight posted on fb that he 'couldn't be harrsed any more'.

I commented that his xmas pressie was going to be a dictionary and begged him to use it and then got a snotty pm saying he

'didn't relize 'letters' could make people fall out'

[MardyBra]

I've seen "text" used a lot instead of "texted"

[IMoveTheStars]

THANK YOU!! I hate 'I text you the details', 'Tex' is so much worse.

Bunny - I think I love you (and I need instructions on that IV)

[DeadPoncy]

Thanks for the quick reply! It's comforting to know I can get a pedant out at short notice, for an emergency!

[IMoveTheStars]

It's TEXTED.

It's 'I texted you about the blah' or 'I sent you a text about the blah'. Saying 'I 'text' you about blah' implies that you are perhaps intending to text, but in a very unsure robotic manner.

[DeadPoncy]

Oops, I missed your other replies. Such a surfeit of support!

I feel very warm and happy and ready for bed, now, having been told this nice bedtime story with the happy ending: "-ted"!

P.S. I do like the Merlot IV. Are there any saltier and sweeter wines which might approximate blood a bit better? Perhaps a port in beef stock gravy?

[DeadPoncy]

Good night for now. Thank you, all!

[prism]

At the risk of being thrown out of Pedants' Corner I shall stick my neck on the table and say I quite like this "tex".

But my reasons for doing so are entirely pedantic. The fact is, "text" isn't a verb either; it has become one because we need a word for something we do all the time but which wasn't dreamed of before 1997, and here we are agonising over vocabulary that is completely new, as if it had always been there.

How many of us, in an almost bygone age, said "I'll send you a copy of it using the facsimile machine"? I didn't, and I bet none of us did, however pedantic.

So I welcome the new verb "tex", so we can leave "text" as a noun, as God intended.

[DeadPoncy]

Ah, but what about "telephone"? Even I don't say "telephone to"!

Anyway, please don't hide. It's good to have a debate somewhere outside AIBU!

[pickledbabe]

I can send you text, or send information with a text, but I can't text you. text is a noun.

and "tex" is even worse - they don't write tex, though, do they? last I saw it was still "txt" for text.
they say "tex" because the T is a glottal stop, and next to an X that's how it comes out.

[DeadPoncy]

English "allows" nouns to be used as verbs (PM, SMS, anyone?), and both "telephone" and "call" have lost prepositions ("to" and "on", respectively).

I guess I'm not a very strict pedant....

However, this was a complaint about the glo'al stop (very good point, pickledbabe) and aout not putting the thing in the proper tense (as texTED).

[prism]

Tee hee, DeadPoncy. I work with someone who always says "telephone" for some reason. I kind of admire the punctilious approach to speaking that this requires, but it rather irritates me. I suppose telephone didn't start out as a verb either but people got sick of saying "Make a telephone call to..." or whatever the correct form initially was.

I think we should ask the Welsh, actually. They're very good at devising new words properly rather than letting them develop through people's laziness or inability to spell (how would you know anyway?). I'm sure they have a word for "text" (vi) that has a splendid etymology and that pedants everywhere can be proud of.

[DeadPoncy]

Oooh, do let us know what it is when you find out!

[MardyBra]

I would argue that "text" is a verb in current usage.

Language does evolve, and we don't want to be stuck in some 1950s time warp.

"I text him" as a past tense will probably become standard usage one day if it becomes common enough (although I sincerely hope it's not in my time!). But in the meantime, I would argue that it is incorrect.

[moros]

I dislike "texted". It sounds very clumsy to me. I'm not sure what's wrong with "I sent her a text" that makes it so rarely used.

[VictorianIce]

Is this nominalisation? We do it all the time with new technology, eg 'scroll'. But people manage to add the 'ed' suffix to that.

Saying 'tex' and 'texing' is just plain lazy. (Harrumph). I've heard 'text' used as the past tense, which I suppose is an attempt at a dental suffix...

[whomovedmychocolate]

I am very disappointed. I came on here to berate you for describing the 'Tex' in 'Tex-Mex' in lower case and since it refers to Texas it should of course be capitalised.

I tend to disown anyone who uses text messages on a point of principle though.

[Ilythia]

I think welsh for text is 'neges' or 'neges destun' but don't hold me to that....

[badgermonkey]

Well, in French, to text is texter - or at least that's what it says in the Year 9 revision booklets at school! I think l'Academie Francaise might have an opinion on that, though.

[LadyShapes]

Why can't this new verb "to text" evolve as an irregular verb?

arise arose arisen
read read read
write wrote written
text text text
etc

[prism]

Now come on Euphemia, you know as well as I do that "hoi" is the definite article in Greek, so no true pedant would say "the hoi polloi"

[prism]

It amazes me that Latin ever caught on, having as it does no word for "yes", "no", "the" or "a". Maybe that's why the Roman empire came to and end...