Words That Didn't Used To Be

Stan Freberg here with a few more comments on language. There's several words around now that didn't used to be words, but all of a sudden are. Like the word "futurize," as in "Let's futurize that." Let's NOT! Be right back. [:60 SPOT BREAK] Freberg here, talking about words that rub me the wrong way. Like the relatively new offshoot of the word "future," "futurize," as in, "Hmm...interesting idea, Freberg. Let's futurize that and see where it leads us." Into the language trash bin is where I say! When did the word "future," a noun, turn into the supposed verb "futurize"? It didn't turn into a word that I can find, not in the several dictionaries I own; yet I hear people use it more and more: "Interesting concept, can you futurize that and see if anybody salutes?" My best friend is the science-fiction legend Ray Bradbury who, decades before we got close enough to Mars to photograph the red planet, wrote his classic novel "The Martian Chronicles." Ray is definitely a "futurist, and yet in all these years, I've never heard him say that he "futurized" anything. Hmm, I think I'll say to my wife Donna, "Can you futurize what we'll be having for dinner three nights from now?" And next time someone says, "Oh, you write radio commentaries?" I'll say, "Yes. First I 'Frebergize' them, and then I 'radioize' them." Stan Freberg here. Copyright (C)1996, Stan Freberg/Freberg, Ltd. (but not very) Distributed by Dick Brescia Associates and Radio Spirits, Inc.