The Oxford English Dictionary keeps adding new word to itself every year. People speaking different languages feel proud when words from their languages are added to the English language. I do not feel proud about it, because there is no reason to do so. But I feel good that people who keep using their own language words in English will be able to feel assured that the listeners will understand what they are saying, if necessary with the help of a dictionary.
But the Oxford dictionary has not, to the best of my knowledge, made an English noun a verb too. Perhaps the continued efforts of English and non-English people will force the change one day. Here is one such example.
We had complaints about the civil work done by the contractor in our institute. One of the complaints was leakage of water through the drain of the OT sink. The water was just pouring out of the building. The consultant who had orchestrated the work wrote back, putting the blame on OT servants.
"The leakage is due to rodding of the outlet" he wrote. I was sure that there was no 'rodding' in English. Even now, my spell check software has underlined this word. But moving papers to and fro is not the fastest method of getting work done. So I called the contractor's workman and asked him what the cause of the leakage was.
"It is due to putting a rod into the outlet to remove a choke up, and pushing it repeatedly to remove the obstruction" he said. "That dislocates the joint in the PVC pipes. They are not secure like the metal pipes."
So that was what 'rodding' was about. I admire the architect who coined this word, not just for speaking, but to put down in official communications. We advised the OT servants not to do so, assured the architect that they would not do so, and got the dislocated joint repaired.
I am thinking of putting a poster near the sink, stating "When to rod or not to rod is the questions, don't". But perhaps I better wait for the Oxford dictionary to make 'rod' a verb.
