English, As She Is Spoke (at least in Kent)

[major_clanger]

Listening to PM during my drive home this afternoon, I wondered if I'd heard properly when Asst Chief Constable Adrian Leppard of Kent Police commented in a briefing on the Kent robbery that "...we are forensicating the scene". But no, replaying the programme on the Radio 4 PM website (listen from about 5:20 in) confirms that ACC Leppard did indeed mangle the English language worser than I think I've ever heard before.

I mean, verbing nouns is bad enough. But verbing an adjective?

Comments

[rozk.livejournal.com]

And the answer is of course that he got it from an American television show. The cast of CSI have been forensicating on a regular basis for a while - I noted it in the episode that showed a couple of nights ago, but I don't think that was the first usage.

Poor love, he is trying to be hip.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

Most of us in Kent have not yet been infected by the Bush virus. It's not clear how it was brought into the country, but experts believe the ACC may have travelled abroad recently.

I'm amazed you didn't hear the explosion from Disgusted of Folkestone yesterday morning when he first used this word on the Today programme. I was hoping desperately that I'd misheard him but someone swiftly emailed the programme to say 'what?'

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

What really worries me is that, Leppard being an unusual name, he might be related to my sister-in-law, and hence to my nieces.