"He eyeballed me pensively"; using bodyparts as verbs

Question

What are these words called, and why are they used in place of traditional verbs? For example:

• She handed me a pencil. [handed instead of gave]
• He eyeballed me pensively. [eyeballed instead of leered or looked at]
• She eyed the carrots. [eyed instead of looked at]
• He mouthed some words to me. [mouthed instead of spoke/said]

There's so many more, so these are just a few examples. This is colloquial speech, but it kind of irks me when I hear people say body parts in place of verbs (excl. handed because it's so common). Is there a particular name for this usage? Is this done in other languages?

Answer 1

One at a time:

• She handed me a pencil. [handed instead of gave]

  Handed and gave are not synonymous. Handed is far more specific, when used in a literal sense (as in your example), as it suggests the action of giving is performed by way of the hand. "She handed me a pencil" elicits a vision of a woman reaching forward her hand, gripping a pencil, as I take it. If one says instead "She gave me a pencil," it could just as well elicit a setting around a Christmas tree, in which I untie a bow, rip the paper, open a box, and find a beautifully decorated Christmas... pencil!

• He eyeballed me pensively. [eyeballed instead of leered or looked at]

  Eyeball is also more specific than looked at, and has different connotations than leer. According to dictionry.com:

  Informal. to look at, check, or observe closely: two opponents eyeballing each other.

  One could say "He looked closely at me," and you would get across a very similar meaning. But again, the visions elicited by the phrases are, at least for me, quite different. To me, eyeballed is much more colorful, perhaps even poetic. If that's not your style, don't use the word.

• She eyed the carrots. [eyed instead of looked at]

  The verb Eye is, once again, far more specific than look at. It indicates a more intensive, intentional action, than simply "looking."

• He mouthed some words to me. [mouthed instead of spoke/said]

  This is the most obvious case where the two words are not synonymous. In fact, they're almost antonyms! To say or speak means you make verbal communication. To mouth the words means you do not make any verbal communication!

---

Now, generally speaking, why do we use body parts as verbs in English? I think others have said it well in comments, but it boils down to creativity, colorful language and, because we can.

Answer 2

She gave me a pencil. vs. She handed me a pencil.

She gave me a pencil could mean she gave me pencil as a Christmas gift. Or it could mean she left a spare pencil in my locker. On the other hand, she handed me the pencil indicates that we were face-to-face at the time of the transaction, and she put it in my hand. In other words, handed is more specific and descriptive.

She looked at the carrots. vs. She eyed the carrots.

I don't see these as equivalent, either. NOAD defines eyed as:

eye (v.) to look at with interest [emphasis added]

She eyed the carrots, then, is more vivid than she looked at the carrots. Perhaps she was walking through the farmer's market, and the carrots were a brilliant orange, in peak season, looking scrumptious enough to make her mouth water. If that were the case, she looked at the carrots would be a rather bland way to describe her fervency.

I supposed you could have picked alternate wordings to describe her actions and get around this problem:

She placed a pencil in my hand, and then ogled the carrots.

However, much like the commenters to your question, I'm at a loss to figure out why this body-part-as-verb phenomenon "irks" you. Moreover, as I mentioned in my comment, these verbs are centuries old; it's not like they represent some newfangled way of expressing something. And even when a body part is rarely used as a verb, I'm glad we have a language that is flexible enough to let it be used as one:

Orr's best remembered moment, of course, came when he wristed a Stanley Cup winning shot past Glenn Hall of St. Louis, then sailed gleefully through the air...¹

It seems like if there would be any reason to be irked, it would be the other way around:

Sorry, you can't use that as a verb. It's a body part.

Now that would be vexing – and hard to enforce. I wouldn't want to be shouldered with that duty!

Answer 3

It sounds like a form of metonymy to me, although all the examples of metonyms I've seen are nouns.