When did "vers" (sp?) become a word?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Yankees vs. Red Sox; Duke vs. Maryland…</p>

<p>I have always known the word to be “versus”, pronounced with two syllables.</p>

<p>From (at least) middle school, DS has pronounced it “verse”, as in MySchool “verse” OtherSchool. I always figured it to be sloppy kid talk and it grated on me (ok, I’m a grammar/spelling/pronunciation Nazi… I might get a life some day… still not too late :)).</p>

<p>I just heard it on ESPN, though. Some sports commentator (we all know how literate and well-spoken they can be), saying he’s looking forward to the Kentucky “verse” Cornell game. </p>

<p>Is this a new accepted variation of the word?</p>

<p>I know this is an earth shattering matter. Which is why I came to the Parent Cafe.</p>

2

<p>My youngest says the SAME thing verse and it drives me nuts. Then he argues with me about it which makes me nuttier. Maybe it’s a “new” word??</p>

3

<p>Yeah, well, “me and Johnny” is the accepted new sentence subject among the younger set. I’m not buying that one either!</p>

4

<p>My pet peeve is the word “prolly” written to mean probably.</p>

<p>Then we had our dear Mr. President who liked to say “nukular” instead of nuclear.</p>

5

<p>My son didn’t even realize the word is supposed to be versus. He always says verse which drives me nuts. So far as “nukular” goes, I think that is regional. It’s the only way I’ve ever heard it said when talking to people.</p>

6

<p>I want to know who decided to add an “S” after possessive words that end in “s”…</p>

<p>It used to be…I went to the Klosses’ home. Now, it’s…I went to the Klosses’s home. yuck.</p>

7

<p>^^^ I just heard the word mavens on NPR’s “A Way with Words” (or maybe it’s local to San Diego KPBS) weigh in that “Klosses’s home” is now the preferred.</p>

<p>At least, when a mom of a kid names Hendrix called in, they told her “Hendrix’s” is preferred to Hendrix’… and I think they extended it your and my pet peeve construction as well.</p>

<p>Double yuck. Maybe I ought to stop listening to that show :).</p>

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<p>I guess “verse” is the new “off-ten”.</p>

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<p>LOL I tried correcting my kids on vers and they looked at me like I was crazy. I think it wasn’t until they took Latin that they realized I was right. :)</p>

10

<p>Aww…when my kids were little they used to say that and I LOVED it. On the way to a soccer game they would ask “Mom, who do we verse?”</p>

<p>It would NOT be cute now that they are teenagers :-).</p>

11

<p>My four intelligent sons and all their friends say verse. It drives me nuts!!! They act like they never heard the word versus.</p>

12

<p>I’ve never heard ‘verse’ for vs. but I have heard very well educated Brits say nukular. It drives me nuts, but I don’t assume they are ignoramuses because of it.</p>

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<p>^^^^I have also never heard anyone say “verse” rather than “versus.”</p>

14

<p>I’ve never heard it either, but maybe it happened around the same time that heighth instead of height became a word or when viola and voila became interchangeable.</p>

15

<p>My kids also said it since when were little and they are in their twenties now. They stopped when they became intelligent.</p>

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<p>^LOL, 3bm103–I’m going to show your post to my son!</p>

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<p>I thought I was the only one that’s been driven CRAZY by this! I am so happy to find this thread! I want to scream when I hear kids ask “who are we versing today” and it makes me even crazier when no one corrects them. i even brought it to the attention of the head of the English department when my son was in middle school.
Thank you for letting me rant a bit!</p>

18

<p>I hate it when I hear things like “I axed the liberryian.”
People who say that should be in jail for bad grammar, if not for the murder of a bibliognost.</p>

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<p>“Klosses’s” might be correct. It depends on whether Klosses is the plural of Kloss. You would use Klosses’ only if the word Klosses were plural. </p>

<p>The apostrophe on the end is correct only in the case of a plural possessive. If the word or proper name naturally ends in s but is not intrinscially plural, then you add ‘s to it. The two documented excepts are the proper Biblical names Jesus and Moses. Singular possessive forms of those two are written Jesus’ and Moses’ respectively.</p>

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<p>^^^This reminds me of something I was wondering earlier. Does anyone have a favorite grammar reference web site? Oprah once had a grammar expert on her show, and it was fun to see her dispel some of the more common grammar myths/mistakes that even well educated people tend to make. I don’t remember her name, but there must be some good sites out there for quick reference.</p>