Anonymous
Post 03/28/2025 07:54     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:I’m more disturbed about “Susie went to prom” vs. “Susie went to the (or her) prom.”


I've always thought that his is a regional thing. I grew up in New England, and we said "the" prom. When I moved to the southeast in 1985, people there left off the article. It still annoys me, 40 years later.
Anonymous
Post 03/28/2025 07:50     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This isn’t new. You’re talking about using disappear as a transitive verb, which is usually reserved for describing people being killed/kidnapped like by a political regime. Not sure of the origin, though.


But it is grammatically incorrect. So when did it become mainstream?


It’s no worse than “I was gifted this” or “he graduated from”


I say graduated from - Johnnie graduated from Harvard vs Johnnie graduated Harvard.
Am I wrong?


People have said it incorrectly for so long that it sounds right to them. But technically you didn’t graduate from a school. You WERE graduated FROM the school. As in the school was the doer. So the correct way to say it would be, “John was graduated from Harvard in 1950.”


successfully complete an academic degree, course of training, or high school.
"I graduated from West Point in 1965"


Similar:
qualify
pass one's exams
pass
be certified
be licensed
take an academic degree
receive/get one's degree
become a graduate
complete one's studies

informal•US
receive an academic degree from.
"she graduated college in 1970"
North American
confer a degree or other academic qualification on.
"the school graduated more than one hundred arts majors in its first year"
move up to (a more advanced level or position).
"he started with motorbikes but now he's graduated to his first car"


Yes. It’s allowed now because people said it incorrectly for so long it became language. Like “awful” or “ginormous” or “gifted.” If you read my original comment it was to state that “disappeared” was no worse than these other ones that are now “acceptable.”

If you read a wedding announcement from 40 years ago, you would not see “the groom graduated from” - you would see “the groom was graduated from”


40 years ago was 1985 and people were absolutely not saying "sally was graduated from" on a regular basis. Are you 125 yrs old? Because my great grandmother born in 1890 didn't say this in 1985.


NP. The PP mentioned wedding announcements, so I checked my in-laws 43 year old wedding announcement and that's what it said. Just a data point.


I got married in 1990, and the wedding announcement in my hometown newspaper said, "The bride was graduated from..."
Anonymous
Post 03/28/2025 07:38     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:Unalive is also being used more frequently.


+1
Anonymous
Post 03/28/2025 07:15     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:This is embarrassing. Tell me you don’t know anything about history.


+1
Anonymous
Post 03/28/2025 05:16     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
I also hate the term "gifting" as a verb.
Anonymous
Post 03/28/2025 03:56     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:Good examples from past decades here, including in Catch-22 from 1961: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/111998/disappear-as-a-transitive-verb

I think OP is lucky to have lived in a world where this wasn't a familiar concept!


Thanks!

I like this:
1897 Chem. News 19 Mar. 143 : We progressively disappear the faces of the dodecahedron.

Mathematicians do stuff like that. They also complexify things.
Anonymous
Post 03/28/2025 03:55     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:I’m more disturbed about “Susie went to prom” vs. “Susie went to the (or her) prom.”


Oh, people went to prom in 1972, when I was finishing h.s. Nobody ever said "the prom."
Anonymous
Post 03/28/2025 03:53     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This isn’t new. You’re talking about using disappear as a transitive verb, which is usually reserved for describing people being killed/kidnapped like by a political regime. Not sure of the origin, though.


But it is grammatically incorrect. So when did it become mainstream?


I seem to remember the word being used first that way in connection with Argentina's dictatorship, and making its way to English via news stories or something. But I think some friends in college used it before that--like how you and your group of people spontaneously create different ways of using words, kind of your group dialect, just like families do.

It also works well as a verb if you think about it. "He disappeared the money" has a connotation other phrasing misses.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 23:43     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This isn’t new. You’re talking about using disappear as a transitive verb, which is usually reserved for describing people being killed/kidnapped like by a political regime. Not sure of the origin, though.


But it is grammatically incorrect. So when did it become mainstream?

It's very correct. So correct and so regular, in fact, that Merriam-Webster lists it as a definition for the word disappear. Were you born yesterday?


DP here. I don’t object to disappear but this is hardly the gold standard. MW adds all kinds of made up words that enter the vernacular.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ginormous

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rizz

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bae

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noob

There are tons more but you get the idea. Finding something “in the dictionary” is not the definitive proof it once was.





Yes, that's how language works. It evolves and changes over time and things that were once "wrong" and now "right."

I notice you're not writing your posts in old or even middle English, so clearly you yourself regularly use many, many words and phrases that were once "made up words that entered the vernacular."


Bitte thine tong!


thy is fine.
Thine is used when the following word starts with a vowel sound. Like A and An.


Middle English wasn't big on standardized grammar or spelling. DCUM posters would have ferful fits.


But this is an issue in spoken language, not spelling.
Naturally it’s “thy love”
And, “thine ear”

No one would get this wrong. I hope you learned something you didn’t know.

They weren’t all spelling back then. It was spoken. They were too dumb / unable to read. Those that did read and write knew this. Lolol. Have a nice night.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 22:46     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Iirc, the first time I heard about someone being Disappeared was when watching Game of Thrones, and that crazy teenage-ish boy would “disappear” people through his trapdoor. Then I started hearing it all the time. So my theory is that GOT made it popular to say.


I have seen every episode of GOT (some more than once) and have no idea who/what you are talking about. What teenage boy? What trap door? I remember there were secret passageways in/out of Kings Landing but that's it.


DP, but I'm virtually certain PP means the "Moon Door" in the Eyrie and the teenager is Robin Arryn.


Yes, that’s the reference, thank you!


Okay. Thanks for clarifying! It was bugging me!
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 20:50     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Iirc, the first time I heard about someone being Disappeared was when watching Game of Thrones, and that crazy teenage-ish boy would “disappear” people through his trapdoor. Then I started hearing it all the time. So my theory is that GOT made it popular to say.


I have seen every episode of GOT (some more than once) and have no idea who/what you are talking about. What teenage boy? What trap door? I remember there were secret passageways in/out of Kings Landing but that's it.


DP, but I'm virtually certain PP means the "Moon Door" in the Eyrie and the teenager is Robin Arryn.


Yes, that’s the reference, thank you!
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 17:18     Subject: Re:Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
It's kind of like when people say someone was "offed".
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 16:41     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This isn’t new. You’re talking about using disappear as a transitive verb, which is usually reserved for describing people being killed/kidnapped like by a political regime. Not sure of the origin, though.


But it is grammatically incorrect. So when did it become mainstream?

It's very correct. So correct and so regular, in fact, that Merriam-Webster lists it as a definition for the word disappear. Were you born yesterday?


DP here. I don’t object to disappear but this is hardly the gold standard. MW adds all kinds of made up words that enter the vernacular.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ginormous

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rizz

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bae

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noob

There are tons more but you get the idea. Finding something “in the dictionary” is not the definitive proof it once was.





Yes, that's how language works. It evolves and changes over time and things that were once "wrong" and now "right."

I notice you're not writing your posts in old or even middle English, so clearly you yourself regularly use many, many words and phrases that were once "made up words that entered the vernacular."


Bitte thine tong!


thy is fine.
Thine is used when the following word starts with a vowel sound. Like A and An.


Middle English wasn't big on standardized grammar or spelling. DCUM posters would have ferful fits.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 15:15     Subject: Re:Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:It became popular during the 1970s, when the military dictatorships in Argentina and Chile were "disappearing"people. I imagine it was a use influenced by the widespread use of it in Spanish at the time (los desaparecieron, los desaparecidos).

According to this link, there were some isolated earlier uses but it became common with the Latin American political disappearances.
https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/08/disappear.html#:~:text=The%20other%20is%20from%20a,of%20the%20Argentine%2Dinspired%20usage.

Yes! I remember reading a book about this in college. I believe it was called The Disappeared.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 14:45     Subject: Odd new syntax with the word “disappear”
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Iirc, the first time I heard about someone being Disappeared was when watching Game of Thrones, and that crazy teenage-ish boy would “disappear” people through his trapdoor. Then I started hearing it all the time. So my theory is that GOT made it popular to say.


I have seen every episode of GOT (some more than once) and have no idea who/what you are talking about. What teenage boy? What trap door? I remember there were secret passageways in/out of Kings Landing but that's it.


DP, but I'm virtually certain PP means the "Moon Door" in the Eyrie and the teenager is Robin Arryn.