Verses vs. versus
Posted by Neal on June 7, 2005
A year ago, I did a guest post on Agoraphilia about Doug’s use of the word verse to mean, “fight against, especially in a contest or tournament setting.” I predicted we’d see more of it as members of his generation grew up. A year later, Doug is still using verse in this way:
I don’t like soccer practice, because we always have to verse the yellow team, and I don’t like versing them.
As Adam has learned to play some of Doug’s videogames, he’s picked up this verb, too. He’ll watch Doug playing a videogame and ask, “Who are you versing?” And just this afternoon, I heard it from two other kids. Doug and Adam and I were at Chuck E. Cheese this afternoon with a friend of Doug’s. This friend had run out of game tokens, so he was pleased when another kid there invited him to play on a two-person game with him, and even spotted him a token to do it. Doug’s friend said:
He’s giving me a token so I can verse him!
I scarcely had time to register that attestation of the innovative verse when I heard it again. This time it came from a friend of Adam’s that we’d met there, who was about to do a different two-player game with his brother. He said,
Mom, I want to verse him!
Their mother confirmed that her boys used verse as a verb all the time at home when they played on their Playstation.
And now, this very evening, what should I find but an account of kids in British Columbia with the verse innovation, in this post from Derryl Murphy (thanks to languagehat). He reports:
Also, when teams face each other in a sporting event, or when there is any other sort of contest, it’s now Us verse Them. I versed him shooting hoops today. We’ll verse the Lions in soccer tomorrow.
Not to mention the colleague of Glen’s in California who said she heard it quite a bit from her son and his friends. Yes, the new verse is definitely getting around. In fact…
Sometimes, when I’ve been playing on the kids’ SpongeBob Typing Skills program, and they’ve asked me how far I’ve gotten, I’ll tell them,
I’m … going against … Mr . Krabs now.
The pause is me thinking, “What’s the word? Versing? No! I know I had a word for this before verse was invented. Oh, yeah, going against (I think). Hmmm… versing… so short, so convenient… No! Must resist!”
Anonymous said
Here on Long Island, I’ve heard “verse” used as you’ve described by my stepson and his friends, starting around age 5. They seem to have outgrown that usage now at age 11.
language said
“Verse” isn’t as new as you imply. From a comment to my entry:
The usage of “verse” as a back-formation from “versus” has become widespread even among adults. The Usenet archive suggests that the verb found popularity amongst gamers and then spread to wider usage in the mid-’90s:
Date: 1995/02/13
Newsgroup: alt.games.sf2
Its a fairly pointless exercise, Versing characters from different arcades against each other anyway…
Date: 1995/09/23
Newsgroup: rec.games.video.sony
When versing the black car, remember that the first is a warmup lap…
Date: 1996/01/22
Newsgroup: rec.motorcycles.dirt
So if I’m right, the next one should be on 1/28 at 3pm est on ESPN2. Unfortunately, it’s versing the Superbowl!
Date: 1996/06/10
Newsgroup: alt.tv.babylon-5
I have noticed one thing, there seems to be a lot of “B”s versing “S”s.
Date: 1996/09/27
Newsgroup: alt.sports.hockey.rhi
I saw a game with them, but I don’t know who they were versing …
Posted by: Ben Zimmer at June 5, 2005 11:58 PM
blahedo said
Well, there’s always simply “I’m against Mr Krab now”, or “I’m fighting Mr Krab now”, or even just “I’m at Mr Krab”. Outside the realm of fight games, you’ve got playing, as in “the Rabbits are playing the Cougars, and you might guess how that will turn out.”
So it’s not like there was a total void being filled by “verse”.
Luke T said
I have to admit that the “vs.”=”verse” {verb} innovation has always been a pet peeve of mine–I’m 24, from the greater Bridgeport area in southern Connecticut, and I grew up hearing this, both during video games and during various other games (“OK lets play pingpong, you and bob wanna verse me and tom?”). {note to self–was that punctuation correct?) It seems to me a pretty intuitive jump–the latin term “versus” seen in the context of “this one against that one” would lead anyone young enough to be grammatically/linguistically flexible to adapt this specialized usage to a more general one. Granted there are preexisting alternatives, but when you always see and hear it used in the context of sporting events, it’s easy to misconstrue its usage.
But even though I can understand how the change came about, I still don’t like it!
vivav said
I think that versing is right because people always say thngs like”who are you versing in sport today”. And nearly everyone in my class says so too. I think that only older people use versus and younger people use versing.But older people sometimes use it too. So nearly everybody uses it.I think it’s an everyday word. My parents and I have used it since we were able to talk. I don’t think it matters if it’s not a verb but we can still use it because it’s not against the law.
Doug’s Multiple-Level Coordination « Literal-Minded said
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TootsNYC said
Sorry to bring this up again, but I was looking to see if anyone else had ever noticed this verb, and found this.
My kids have been using the verb “verse”–”He was versing me in basketball”–for YEARS, since G1 (the oldest, a DD) was in kindergarten. She’s in 8th now.
It’s a very valuable verb–they and their friends have used it quite happily for years.
I’m ready to start lobbying for inclusion in dictionaries–it’s just so useful!
Holt said
Dear Mr. Neal,
Yep, Holt again. I actually use verse all the time (I think it’s a kids thing (I mean, what do you expect? I’m nine-years-old! Doug’s age now!)). I might have got it from Doug, but I was saying it WAY before I met him.
ResearchGuy said
I found your site while searching to prove to my wife there is no grammatically-correct usage of “versing” as a verb meaning to challenge or play against. I am horrified at this low-grade proliferation and hope it ceases.
Gus said
I’m a seventh grade English teacher on Long Island. I get the douche chills every time I hear a child use “verse” as a verb. They actually argue with me when I try to teach them how to use the prepostion “versus” correctly. “That sounds weird,” is the most common reply, followed by “But they say it on TV all the time.” Really? When? Where? Who? This has to end. We need to band together to end the stupity.
Neal said
Douche chills? I hadn’t heard that one. Thanks for introducing it to me. It sounds like douche chills was coined to cover some of the same situations as igry was. Afraid : heebie-jeebies :: igry : douche chills.
Prem said
Honestly, this shocked and worried me. I’m a big video game player, and also a resident editor for an English translation group. Now, my English may not be perfect, but to hear both my little Canadian cousins, aged 10 and 8, saying this… it makes me rather upset. In my entire life I’ve not met a game that uses such a ridiculous word, and indeed, many (fighting) games spell out ‘versus’ with every match. How hard is it to say ‘fighting’, ‘facing’, or as you put it simply ‘going against’…
I think parents should say something when young kids say this, because who else will teach them the ways of the world? I don’t know about you but I’m not holding my breath waiting for video games that pipe up and tell you off when you say something wrong. That’s what parents are for.
Daryn said
I just heard a DJ on an FM station here in Melbourne, Australia use the word “versing” in relation to a competition they were running. I’ve managed to teach my two young kids that there is no such word, but really, who are we kidding? It will be in the Oxford Dictionary before too much longer, I’m sure. *sigh* The death of the English language continues apace.
Uly said
Of course there is such a word. You know what it means. They know what it means. Other people know what it means. How can you say it is not a word?
This is not the death of the English language, it is the *life* of the English language. A language is considered dead when there are no more speakers – but the nature of speakers is to play with, to change, to alter their language. How can any language be considered to be dying when people have so much fun with it?
rootberlin said
Isn’t this just how English has functioned since it stopped being German? We have lots of words that weren’t verbs a few generations ago. ‘I’ll text you my e-mail address.’ English evolves constantly, and this just seems to be a fairly straight forward example of the birth of a word. I plan on using ‘to verse’ as soon as I find an appropriate opportunity.