In an answer to another question, steven_desu argued that it was “technically incorrect” to use the word “e-mail” or “email” as a verb because it stands for “electronic mail.”
I do not argue whether he is right or not because I am not interested in whether the word is “technically correct” or not. As far as I am concerned, it is enough to know that the use of “e-mail” as a verb is widely accepted.
However, his answer has certainly pointed out an interesting fact: when people use “e-mail” as a verb, they no longer care about the fact that the word was originally an abbreviation for “electronic mail,” which is a noun phrase. “Please e-mail me” is fine, but “please electronic mail me” is simply wrong. Although “please electronically mail me” may be ok, I do not think that people consider “please e-mail me” as a short form for “please electronically mail me.”
So my question is: what are other examples of words like this:
- The word is originally an abbreviation for a noun or a noun phrase, and
- It can be used as a verb (or, even better, another part of speech!) in a way that the original word/phrase cannot substitute for the abbreviation.
