Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Verb "to text"

For some reason when people use the verb to text in the past tense as "texted" it really rubs me like fingernails on a chalkboard. So I told the family I was going to find the correct usage figuring that it should be said "tex'd" as in one syllable. Well, I guess we are all correct..., but I still prefer the single syllable pronunciation to the double syllable one.

According to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary
(available through some libraries), there has been a verb "text" since
the 1500s, with a past tense of "texted" or "tex'd." The current
meaning of "to send a text message" was accepted by the OED in its
draft additions of June 2004, and include the example of "texted."
Here is the link and referrence I found. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=567531

3 comments:

Becky said...

I laughed when I saw you really did research "text" and put it on the blog! Quoting the Allens, I say "very good!"

Unknown said...

Hmmm, something I never thought of. I don't think I've ever used the word "texted."

Anna Maria Junus said...

I've never heard the word texted.

The one that annoys me is when people say axe instead of ask. There's no x in the word yet people insist on putting it in. Or they'll say aks. K doesn't come before s except in the alphabet.