Verbing Weirds Language

The Japanese can be quite creative when it comes to playing with words, whether it’s coming up with an advertising slogan like “Shall We Sapporo Beer?” or making textbooks called “Let’s English!” or Japan’s leading cellular phone company changing its name from DoCoMo to DOCOMO (all caps). They also keep their language fresh by constantly adding new words, some of which come from English, although they’re often adapted for easier use by shoehorning them into Japanese grammar. Since most Japanese verbs end in -ru, there’s a tendency to make slang words by tacking on this ending, which creates interesting hybrids like memoru (to take a memo), daburu (to be duplicated, from “double”), misuru (miss + ru, to miss an answer or get an answer wrong on a test) or baguru (bug + ru, to get a bug in your software). Just as “to google” has become a verb in English, the unofficial word for “to search using Google” in Japanese is guguru, used by almost all Internet users. Another example of this trend is the English word “trouble,” which is converted into the slang verb toraburu meaning “to get into trouble,” which inspired the title for To LOVE-ru. To quote Calvin & Hobbes, “verbing weirds language.”