Newsweek, “Feeling a Bit Iffy About ‘Abilify’”

September 10, 2014

Alexander Nazaryan, “Feeling a Bit Iffy About ‘Abilify’” (Newsweek, Sept. 10, 2014)

“There’s no danger of abilify becoming a conventionally accepted verb any time soon,” says Wall Street Journal “Word on the Street” columnist Ben Zimmer. “All this demonstrates is that those in the naming and branding industry have a penchant for adding the -ify suffix to create new concoctions.” Zimmer notes that fellow linguist Christopher Johnson has compiled a Pinterest board of “ify” brands, which include Rentify, Wingify and Attendify, not to mention the popular music-streaming service known as Spotify.

Read the rest here.

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