Hi Adrian,
I thought it was a basic feature of English that every noun could be verbed... ;-) <ducks>The web site for beta 2 says "these new builds obsolete OObeta 2"
Does no one know any grammar? Obsolete is NOT verb but an adjective. You can no more "obsolete" something than you can "wooden" something. It can become obsolete as you "displace" it with something else or "replace" it with a new version etc.
It is an allowable nonce use, though one is expected to show restraint, especially in formal writing. This is a natural, probably inevitable development in a language that has been constantly growing less synthetic and more analytical for a thousand years. At the extreme pole, the artificial language Loglan recognizes no distinction at all.
Le mrenu ga prano. The man runs. Le prano ga feldzo. The runner stumbles. Le prano fumna ga bilti. The running woman is beautiful. Le katmu ga prano janto. The cat hunts, running (lit., runningly hunts).
I understand that Chinese is much the same.
--
John W. Kennedy
"...if you had to fall in love with someone who was evil, I can see why it was her."
-- "Alias"
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