Verbretar

Verbretar is a neologism used to describe the process of deriving verbs from other lexical categories, especially from nouns and adjectives. The term functions as a convenient label in informal linguistic discussion for phenomena more formally known as denominal and deadjectival verbing or verbalization.

Etymology and usage

The word blends "verb" with a Romance-style verb-forming suffix, implying the action of making or becoming a verb. It is not a standardized technical term in morphology but appears in pedagogical materials, blogs, and informal analyses to discuss how languages expand their verbal inventories.

Morphological mechanisms

Verbretar covers several mechanisms by which words become verbs: affixation (e.g., English re- + use → reuse), zero-derivation or conversion (English to email from email), compounding (German Staubsaugen ‘to vacuum’, literally ‘dust-suck’), and suppletion or stem alteration in some languages. It also includes syntactic strategies that shift category via phrase-level processes.

Cross-linguistic occurrence

All language families exhibit verbalization but differ in productivity and means. English favors conversion; Romance languages favor affixation; polysynthetic languages may incorporate nouns into verbal morphology rather than derive separate verb forms.

Discussion

As an informal term, verbretar is useful for classroom explanations and comparative overviews but should be supplemented with established morphological terminology in formal linguistic work. It highlights creativity in lexical expansion and the dynamic nature of part-of-speech categories.