Ah, that's too bad.  I like thinking that Star Trek has infiltrated the
language more than it has.

Iarry

____________________________
Larry Beason, Associate Professor
Director of Composition
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36688-0002
>>> [log in to unmask] 04/23/05 11:15 AM >>>
No, the Star Trek implement is a "phaser." A quick google check
indicates that the word is supposed to come from a clipping of "phased
energy rectification." 'Faze' comes from Middle English 'fesen', meaning
to frighten or to drive away.

Karl Hagen
Department of English
Mount St. Mary's College

Larry Beason wrote:

>I'm not sure if this has been pointed out yet, but didn't this use of
>"faze" start with the original Star Trek series--the 'fazer' that would
>stun aliens and various creatures?  I recall it as a popular verb in
our
>high school slang, back in the 1970s.
>
>Larry
>
>
>____________________________
>Larry Beason, Associate Professor
>Director of Composition
>University of South Alabama
>Mobile, AL 36688-0002
>
>
>>>>[log in to unmask] 04/23/05 10:11 AM >>>
>>>>
>>>>
>For me, 'fazed' is not unsuitably informal, although I encourage my own
>students to write with a middle level of formality, so perhaps I'm
>operating with different criteria of appropriateness. (Although I must
>say that any word which has been around since Middle English certainly
>has some claim to be standard.)
>
>As for its use as a  participial adjective, that too I find defensible.
>It doesn't appear in dictionaries for the same reason that
>"strengthless," which Ed mentioned in another post, does not: the use
is
>explained by the ordinary productive morphology of the language.
>Conversion from participials to adjectives is incredibly common and
>should not require sanction by a dictionary for us to use a participle
>this way, even in the most formal writing.
>
>I too see the real problem as lying with the prepositional choice
(along
>with the rather awkward gerund).
>
>Karl Hagen
>Department of English
>Mount St. Mary's College
>
>PAUL E. DONIGER wrote:
>
>
>
>>In finally getting around to grading my latest set of senior English
>>papers (Hamlet Logs), I came across a usage issue that has come up
>>before and that gives me some minor trouble. My student wrote:
>>
>>"Hamlet doesn't seem phased [sic] at all from having killed Polonius."
>>
>>Aside from the misspelling of 'fazed', I am troubled that the word is
>>being used in a clumsy (or, dare I say it, "wrong") manner. My
>>dictionaries all refer to 'faze' as a transitive verb, and that's how
>>I grew up, too. There is also no indication in my dictionaries that
>>'fazed' is ever used formally as an adjective. Does anyone approve, in
>>formal, academic writing (SWE) of my student's usage?
>>
>>For the record, I am suggesting that my student re-write as follows:
>>"Killing Polonius does not seem to faze Hamlet at all." I'm not in
>>love with this sentence either, but I do think it's a little better --
>>frankly, I don't like the word 'faze' one bit in this context; it
>>seems very weak. I'd cut the whole sentence and just get on with
>>commenting on Hamlet's flippancy with Claudius over the location of
>>the body.
>>
>>Any thoughts?
>>
>>Paul
>>
>>
>>"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an
>>improbable fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128). To join or leave
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>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
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>
>

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