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A.Word.A.Day--suspire

It's said that in the English language every noun can be verbed, but there's nothing more grating on the ears than the gratuitous "verbification" of nouns in a modern workplace exchange.

From "productizing an idea" to "administrating the plan" and "incentivizing the workers" these verb-forms are about as graceful as a sumo wrestler performing a ballet.

Don't get me wrong -- there's nothing sinful about coining new words, or using existing ones in creative ways, but these Latinate constructions just don't work. There are already countless words that can do the job very well. This week we'll look at five verbs in the English language.

suspire (suh-SPYR) verb tr., intr.

To breathe; to sigh.

[From Latin suspirare (to breathe up), from spirare (to breathe).]

"Environmentally, there can be no doubt now that Singaporeans will either suspire or expire together with the Indonesians and Malaysians."
Janadas Devan; An Environmental Wake-up call; Straits Times (Singapore); Oct 7, 1994.

See more usage examples of suspire in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

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