Anti-Antimeria, No More? (Limerick)

A Slate language column by Katy Waldman has me re-thinking my anti-antimeria stance. (Antimeria is a “rhetorical device that repurposes a word as a different part of speech than usual.”)

Her column makes some solid points about antimeria’s advantages. In fact, the device may even prove to be handy for humor writing.

Katy’s viewpoint may generate frowns:
Turning nouns into verbs, verbs to nouns
Is extolled by that writer.
Though some may indict ’er,
The thought ain’t as bad as it soun’s.

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One Response to “Anti-Antimeria, No More? (Limerick)”

  1. Suzanne Heymann says:

    Hmmm… Antimeria, eh? I learn something new every day around here…

    When verbal has gone diarrhea
    And nouning’s a real bad idea
    My family of words
    Is as useless as turds
    My grampa and grammar
    Just stutter and stammer
    And Father and Mother
    Keep searching verb Brother
    Though Uncle’s in town
    He won’t help me verb noun
    So I call upon Anti Meria.

    (I know I know… I broke the golden rule of limerick writing… so shoot me now! …well, there’s always the ‘delete’ button…