Come on folks! Give a dude a break! Most of you who have been reading the content of my blog know that I have a pet peeve about people who turn words into verbs when they are not (Google for example. See my post on that one!). Or changing the name of populare or house hold names (like Xerox to mean copy or Kleenex to mean tissue.) Well just when I least expected it another such term cropped up on me yesterday. When is it ever going to end?
I was had just gotten off of the bus and was walking with a friend of mine who works in the same general area and frequently sits next to me on the way home. He was trying to tell me about a book that he was reading that he thought that I would be particularly interested in. Sure I said. What’s it about. So he proceeded to tell me about the subject matter of the book— nothing bad, but definitely NOT up my alley — and as we parted (he turns right and I go on two more blocks before my turn–though you neeed to know that 🙂 ) but as I was saying… as we parted he told me that if I was interested in getting the book I could look up the author (and he gave me his name) and told me all I had to do was Amazon him! ARRRRRGH, how my skin began to crawl when he said that. Amazon IS NOT A VERB!!!!!! I’m sorry, it might even be a household name at this point…. but it IS NOT a verb! I don’t care if Merriam Webster decides it is, just as it has decided with Google. Amazon is not a verb. Did I happen to mention that Amazon is not a verb? Oh, OK, I didn’t want to forget. So, at least for me, I would like it to be said that I am never going to be “Amazoning” ANYTHING; particularly because Amazon is not a verb! I will go to Amazon, just as I would to Google, and I will search for products—and perhaps even buy something. But I will not “Amazon it. In closing I would simple like to say, and have it know; in the event that I have not been to clear in expressing it….. Amazon is NOT a verb.
The Imponderable One 
I’ve got to agree with you there. Given the fact that the English lanquage is one of, if not the, most precise linquistic tool ever invented man (name another lanquage where you draw such a fine distinction as the very subtle difference between ‘persnickety’ and ‘piciyune’, and please forgive me if I spelled the words wrong (its 4 a.m. and I not at my sharpest), why must we dumb down, especially as literally 100s of words are deem ‘obsolete’ and dropped from he dictionary every year? I’m all for progress and do believe that English needs to evolve like any other tool, but using ‘amazon’ as a verb strikes me as just plain lazy. I mean, we can no longer be ‘chilvarous’ but hey, we can always ‘yahoo!” Thanks for a point well made.