New Use For For Old Word `Happies' Writing Critic

"There's a tremendous increase in the HUTs," said Bill Brooks. "That happys me."

Brooks is general manager of a TV station serving the area of West Palm Beach, Fla. He was happied by a new system of measuring Houses Using Television, but he was unhappied by some of the data the system produced.

Until the gentleman expressed his pleasure to the Palm Beach Post, I had not seen "to happy" in nigh on to 400 years. The last time I came across the transitive verb was around 1597, when Bill Shakespeare showed me a sonnet he had written. The poem later turned up as No. 6 in his series: "That use is not forbidden usury, which happies those that pay the willing loan."

Sad to say, "to happy" dropped into obscurity. Today's dictionaries, if they list the verb at all, label it "archaic" or "obsolete" or "dialect." It ought to be reclaimed. If the Palm Beach Post will move to re-admit "happy" as a transitive verb, I will second the motion.

Rush empurples Clinton?

You eagle-eyed readers have sent in a number of other verbs of ancient vintage. Raymond Coffey, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, remarked upon the re-creation of "a low-paid servant class to convenience the economic elite." The verb dates from 1630 in the sense of "to accommodate" or "to pleasure."

Robert Holland, writing in the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, recalled that Virginia's Gov. Douglas Wilder had refused to intervene in the controversy over admitting women to Virginia Military Institute. His stand "empurples feminists and assorted media buffoons."

The verb, to empurple, dates from 1590, but it appears to have been used chiefly in the context of flowers and clothing. Violets empurple a field. In the apoplectic sense, "Rush Limbaugh empurples Mr. Clinton," the usage is a new one on me.

The verb "to lavish" also dates from the 16th century, as in "to lavish praise," but a new twist developed last year in a Father's Day piece in the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald: "You can lavish dad with a couple of sports shirts." We old dads love to be lavished.

"To extravagate" goes back to 1600. At that time it meant only "to wander, depart from." A preacher might extravagate from his text. By the mid-19th century, the verb had begun to mean "to exceed boundaries of taste or propriety." Some talk-show hosts are notorious for their extravagation. The verb turned up in a Seattle newsletter in April. The editor said that "reports of deaths are sometimes greatly extravagated." I have no idea what the editor was talking about. Good verb, though.

In a pharmacy near Fort Sam Houston in Texas, a sign reads, "All military personnel in uniform will expedite to the front of the line." The verb dates from the l5th century, but I believe the intransitive form may be new.

An even older verb, to marvel, resurfaced in May in The Leaf-Chronicle of Clarksville, Tenn. The intransitive form dates from the 14th century: We marvel at the frontiers of cyberspace. This was a transitive usage: "Annular eclipse marvels viewers." If we can lavish a dad, perhaps we can marvel a viewer.

Onslaught of ize-ending verbs

The mail brings a bumper crop of ize-ending verbs. I doubt that "to Bobbittize" will stick, but one of Dear Abby's readers warned in June against accidents that could Bobbittize a finger. Jonathan Alter, senior editor of Newsweek, gave a lecture in April: "The Geraldoization of News." That won't charm the lexicographers either.

The Unisys people, the ones who make it happen, are advertising a "customerized" approach. The New York Times reports the "ruralization" of towns in Bosnia. In Harper's magazine, a European observer says we must "contextualize" violence in Los Angeles. It looks as if "incentivize" is gaining. Aaargh!

Columnist Molly Ivins has coined "to gritch," a melding of to gripe and to bitch. In The New York Times, sportswriter George Vecsey denounced "the gloms who run the United States Tennis Association." Columnist Anna Quindlen said a recent movie "did not make reporting unreasonably glam." Columnist A.M. Rosenthal said it is "pure churl" not to recognize France for its effort in Rwanda.

Let us not gritch about new uses for old words, or about the coinage of new words. Some neologisms are truly glam. They happy writers everywhere. Only gloms complain.

(Copyright 1994 Universal Press Syndicate)

The Writer's Art by James J. Kilpatrick appears Sunday in the Scene section. Address comments or questions to: Writer's Art, c/o Newsroom, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.