As my dealings with practicing lawyers have increased in frequency, I’ve encountered another example of a particular neologism: a verb form adapted from the name of a new technology. The newest example: “to pdf.” As in, when I receive the document, “I’ll pdf it to you.” Which means: I’ll convert the incoming document — attachment, fax — to pdf format, attach the pdf file to an email, and send the email to you.
I’m sure that this has been around the world of commerce for awhile; for some reason, it hasn’t really penetrated the academy (not enough urgent document transfers?). I wonder about how and where the usage evolved; I wonder how durable it’s likely to be; and even though pdf isn’t a proprietary format (I believe), I wonder what Adobe’s trademark lawyers think of this.