This post is just for fun.
I shall define "shanghai verbs" as verbs in the languages of the W Eur Sprachbund that are directly derived from PNs or RNs.
Either with structure PN + zero (as in Eng. "to shanghai" ) or as PN + verbal suffix (as in French "limoger" - to kick upstairs).
Not via an adjective (as in Eng "to welsh on" )
I've had a good old think and these are the only candidates for shanghai verbs that I've been able to dredge up.
The interesting thing - apart from the rarety of these verbs - is that shanghai verbs very often describe violent and unpleasant to the object processes.
1. Eng "to meander" - from the RN in Asia Minor.
to have a sinuous and dilatory course.
See Jeremy Seal's travel book "Meander" (Vintage).
There are 3 Meander rivers in present day Turkey.
2. Eng. "to shanghai" - from the Chinese city.
to pressgang a mariner or other person for nefarious purposes.
3. Fr. "limoger" - from the City Limoges (Haute-Vienne)
WW1 slang - incompetent commanders were sent to Limoges to get them well behind the front lines.
Still very current in Mod Fr.
I will reluctantly not allow Jacques Brel's "bruxeller" (from the Belgian capital), in the line of the chorus in his song "Bruxelles" "au temps ou Bruxelles bruxellait" ("when Brussels brusseled", referring to the Belle Epoque, not further defined by the singer). x here = /ss/ not /ks/ unless you are from the wrong side of the Quievrain or wish to appear so.
4. Eng "to cheddar" - from Cheddar SOM - not in big OED or Colins - but I'm sure I've seen this.
refers to cheese-making process (cutting up the set cheese when first set and and allowing it to reform).
You might say from a common noun Cheddar rather from the PN directly.
5. Eng "to Japan" from the country-name.
refers to an industrial process (enamelling)
6. Eng. "to spruce up"
hmm - borderline - the tree name is apparently deived from med W Slaviv equiv. to mod. Polish "z Prusz" from Prussia.
7. Eng "to sodomise" - from Sodom in the Holy Land.
8. Greek had a verb I think +/- korinthozein meaning "to make love to" and derived from the polis name Korinthos.
(which I'd bet using elephant theory once meant "isthmus" in the local pre-IE). Can't find a ref for this verb.
9. Eng "to rubicon" (1 attestation 1890 in big OED) - though this is via rubicon as a common noun (card game)
10. WW2 German "coventrieren" - from Coventry WAR - not meaning "to send to Coventry" - but to bomb heavily from the air and coined 1940 or 1941. See Victor Klemperer's "LTI" chapter XX. As VK says, if this ever had any genuine currency, by the end of the war no Germans were using it any more,
11. I think German at some stage in WW1 or WW2 also had a neologism "luettichieren" (to destroy a city in the manner Liege Belgium was destroyed) - but I can't find a ref.
12. Am Eng "to californicate" - I've seen this used by survivalist charecters in detective fiction, meaning to "screw up" in a political/economic situation
13. Am Eng - "to hollywoodize" - I've certainly seen "hollywoodization" which implies - maybe wrongly - that this verb exists.
meaning "to dumb down".
14. Finlandization (1970's neologism) is in Collins and again might imply a verb to finlandize.
Sort of "to medize" as the Greeks said, or to kow-tow to nearby superpower.
"to balkanise" exists but is almost def. from Balkan the adjective.
15. Eng "to maffick" from Mafeking in South Africa (?Botswana).
now dead I think - a Boer War neologism - to celebrate a military victory
"to canter" I'll disallow as from "Canterbury trot" - and - regretfully - also "to seine" (Fishing - as this is not etym. connected to the Sequana river).
Whilst it's true that idioms involving "others" are often pejorative (e.g. French leave/filer a l'anglaise etc.), these shanghai verbs are a notably grim bunch.
Thanks for reading this post
nick
|