Noun

From The Jolly Contrarian
Revision as of 13:30, 14 August 2024 by Amwelladmin (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Towards more picturesque speech
SEC guidance on plain EnglishIndex: Click to expand:
Tell me more
Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

A noun is a person, place or thing, though preferably — in the mind of a quill-wielding solicitor — an abstract thing that started out life as a verb.

As far as your counsel is concerned, the best kinds of nouns have gone through several grammar reassignment operations: That old favourite applicability started out life as a verb (“apply”), became a noun (“applicability”), reverted back to a verb — albeit a passive one — (“to be applicable”), and eventually settled on a life of tedious nounitude in its adult form as “applicability”.