Hello everyone,
The other day I was arguing with a (non-birding) friend of mine who is (in my opinion) overly pedantic about word definitions. She was arguing that "bird" cannot be a verb (as in "to bird," eg "I would like to make a quick stop to bird that sewage treatment plant, because it is good for peeps."). Her point was that "bird" is not listed as a verb in any dictionary except Wiktionary, at least that we could find online, in the sense of "bird watching." There is an archaic sense of "to bird" that has the meaning of "pursuing birds with the intent to hunt them," but that was only in a few dictionaries and seems to not be in much current use (the references to this usage were from several centuries ago).
Because I am, perhaps, a bit obstinate about some things, I was trying to find the oldest recorded use of "bird" as a verb in the way that we birders use it today. I was able to find a quote in the Miami Herald newspaper from 1983 where a park ranger is quoted as saying "It's a very confusing thing to bird down here" [because the birds are in winter plumage, which makes them harder to ID]. The database I was using was one for newspapers, and only goes back to 1972. It also looks like the database is pretty North America-focused. It does carry a few of the major UK papers, and in searching these, I can't readily find any references to "bird" being used as a verb.
My questions for anyone who feels like joining in on this debate are:
1. Do birders outside of the US use "bird" as a stand-alone verb (meaning, essentially "to birdwatch" or "to birdwatch at" [place])?
2. Does anyone know of any usages of "bird" as a verb older than the 1983 newspaper article that I mentioned above?
3. Also, what are your thoughts? Do you use "bird" as a verb? Do you agree with my non-birding friend, that such a thing should not be allowed and is a travesty to the English language?
The other day I was arguing with a (non-birding) friend of mine who is (in my opinion) overly pedantic about word definitions. She was arguing that "bird" cannot be a verb (as in "to bird," eg "I would like to make a quick stop to bird that sewage treatment plant, because it is good for peeps."). Her point was that "bird" is not listed as a verb in any dictionary except Wiktionary, at least that we could find online, in the sense of "bird watching." There is an archaic sense of "to bird" that has the meaning of "pursuing birds with the intent to hunt them," but that was only in a few dictionaries and seems to not be in much current use (the references to this usage were from several centuries ago).
Because I am, perhaps, a bit obstinate about some things, I was trying to find the oldest recorded use of "bird" as a verb in the way that we birders use it today. I was able to find a quote in the Miami Herald newspaper from 1983 where a park ranger is quoted as saying "It's a very confusing thing to bird down here" [because the birds are in winter plumage, which makes them harder to ID]. The database I was using was one for newspapers, and only goes back to 1972. It also looks like the database is pretty North America-focused. It does carry a few of the major UK papers, and in searching these, I can't readily find any references to "bird" being used as a verb.
My questions for anyone who feels like joining in on this debate are:
1. Do birders outside of the US use "bird" as a stand-alone verb (meaning, essentially "to birdwatch" or "to birdwatch at" [place])?
2. Does anyone know of any usages of "bird" as a verb older than the 1983 newspaper article that I mentioned above?
3. Also, what are your thoughts? Do you use "bird" as a verb? Do you agree with my non-birding friend, that such a thing should not be allowed and is a travesty to the English language?