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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   Edited 2yr ago   5649 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 13, 2022

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Is there a name for referring to a person or other living being as a noun referring to a situation that it was involved in? The two examples that come to mind are:

  • "a suicide" as opposed to "a person who committed suicide".

  • "my dog was a rescue" as opposed to "my dog was rescued".

nouning

(ironically 'nouning' is an example of verbing)

I've never heard anyone say "my dog is a rescue" and the only times I've heard suicide used as a noun would be cops saying "it was a suicide" and I think its referring to the situation, or its just an idiomatic it like "it's raining outside."

Could you give another example of what you mean?

Northeastern USA it’s common to hear people refer to their dogs as rescues in my experience

It does have a historical basis.

I think the suicide one is from Sarah Perry's old blog "the view from hell" and rescue one is something I heard an acquaintance say.

I've heard people say "my dog is a rescue" all the time. For the suicide example, best I can do is dialogue from Kingdom of Heaven. A priest at the beginning refers to a dead woman, saying "she was a suicide, cut off her head".

I feel like suicide, and other -cide identities, are more old fashioned. Like old books referring to Cromwell as a regicide, or Oedipus as a patricide.

Synecdoche?

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