A big ask

[FredPuli43]

"It's a big ask but I think we can do it". When did 'ask' become a noun ? Is it's use in this way just a British usage or has it come from some other anglophone country?

[emmie]

i hate it when i hear this, it never ever sounds right, more like a big arse.

[sunny-dave]

best laugh of the day - thanks em10 :+)

[Mamyalynne]

Chambers 11th Edition has 'Ask' as a Noun, something demanded or requested...eg A tough ask.

Interesting discussion here too....


http://itre.cis.upenn.../archives/001331.html

[Zeuhl]

The words 'ask' and 'request' are interchangeable as verbs so why not as nouns.

'ask' is certainly very useful as a noun in fundraising; for example,

"we depressed response but increased net income by increasing the Ask to £12.50"
.

[FredPuli43]

Interesting link (above).

I've not heard it as 'the sum sought' in fundraising, nor as in 'it depends what the ask is' but only as ' the asking for, or expectation or hope of, something to be done'. It may have become a noun in two or three different places separately. The US version may have started as the word for the sum sought in fundraising and been applied to other things, as Kerry used it. The Australian version seems to have less specific from the beginning. The UK version seems different again.

A Canadian friend, who lives near the US border, in Ontario, had never heard it used until she returned to England recently, 20 years after leaving. She found it used frequently here and did not think it was American, for if it was general or common in American speech she would have encountered it. (Another new 'anglicism' was 'Bless!' in response to some innocent or naive statement of a child etc)

I like it in the sense it's used here. It condenses a long phrase into one word.

[jno]

also used by the team batting second in cricket: "300 runs in 50 overs is a big ask." That isn't quite the same as request or fund-raising goal: it's a requirement (if you want to win).

[emmie]

sunny dave, i didn't mean it to be, but i dare anyone to listen and not say that is exactly what it sounds like.

[askyourgran]

Em the way my gdaughter would say 'ask' it would sound as you say. But here in Yorkshire the emphasis is on the hard A, not arsk.

[factor-fiction]

It seems to be widely accepted now. For example Michael Atherton (cricket player/commentator) has been using the expression for over 10 years and he went to Manchester Grammar and Oxford. It's an expression like 'absolutely' that I struggle to use

[Answerprancer]

It irritates me too. I think someone should start off a thread where everyone is invited to make up a few sentences that contain ALL of their most hated verbs turned into nouns, adjectives from outer space, and all other new expressions that are *so* not good. Simples ! (yeuch!)

[factor-fiction]

Oops, sorry Michael Atherton- I think you went to Cambridge not Oxford

[Zeuhl]

So if 'an ask' falls foul of the no verbs turned into nouns law

would you also ban

'we have received a request'?

or is it the verb that's bad there?

'he requested her hand in marriage'

Perhaps it's just inconsistency that should be challenged ...

[FredPuli43]

So long as the meaning is clear, i see no objection to 'nouning' verbs or 'verbing' nouns; the practices are both trialed nowadays.

I do have a somewhat irrational objection to 'upcoming' for 'forthcoming', but that's another matter.

[Zeuhl]

L O L

I suppose

'my lunch is forthcoming'

isn't the same as

'my lunch is upcoming'

[Quizmonster]

Fred, ask was used as a noun as long ago as 1000 AD and was certainly still in use thus in the late 19th century, so we cannot condemn it as an Americanism! Let's just call it a 'revival', shall we?

Factor, if you are referring to the use of absolutely to mean emphatically yes or quite so, this has been in use since the 1890s. Originally an Americanism, it has been freely used by British speakers and writers for over a century. I think it's about time we just accepted it. It ain't gonna go away!

[emmie]

it is when you put the two words together, big ask, i have yet to hear it sound different than i have described. The first time i heard someone say it on television i wondered whether i had misheard, must turn down the ear trumpet.

[vivandorron]

Is it a big ask to ask what is being asked?.

Please forget that I asked that. I am noun for asking silly questions :-)

Ron.