when did rsvp become a verb… and indeed a noun?
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007This afternoon, I received an email inviting me to some works leaving drinks. At the end was “No need to RSVP.” Why does this wind me up? Wiktionary serves to anger me further:
A very common mistake is to use the wording “Please RSVP”, which is redundant since SVP stands for “please”.
Yeah, right, so why are you not bothered that nothing you say with this “verb” makes sense in the first place? “Have you please responded yet?” “I can only please respond when I know my plans for the weekend.”
Grrrrrr!
Dictionary.com has a much better definition (though I disagree the plural deserves an apostrophe — don’t get me started), and I’m still not happy about the whole thing.
RSVP, RSVPed or RSVP’d, RSVPing or RSVP’ing, noun, plural RSVP’s.
–verb (used without object)
1. to reply to an invitation: Don’t forget to RSVP before Thursday.
–noun
2. a reply to an invitation: He sent a lovely bouquet of flowers with his RSVP.
3. (used on an invitation to indicate that the favor of a reply is requested).
Also, R.S.V.P.
Were it not for my personal policy to not join any Facebook groups, I’d be right there joining RSVP is not a noun, it is not a verb, it is an imperative command!.
/rant