Not getting the concept

Well, here's a guy I want to kick in the face: some copywriter named Ray Del Salvio who’s started a campaign to get “concept” listed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a verb. (Here’s a Slate article on him, and here’s the hub of his linked blogs promoting his campaign.) As Bill Watterson said, "verbing weirds language," and it always seems to be the people in marketing who weird the language the most. But in this case, according to the Slate article, even other copywriters frown upon his use of "concept" as a verb and deny that it's common practice. (One senior copywriter says if he heard a junior writer use it, he'd take that person aside and explain that it wasn't proper English.)

And moreover, it seems the rest of his writing skills aren't up to snuff either. The Slate article quotes him as referring to his correspondence with a Merriam-Webster editor as "Kory and I's conversations". It's depressing to think that this guy introduces himself at parties as a professional writer, and yet, is apparently unaware of the pronouns my or our. "Kory and my conversations" would probably be more on the mark, since the possessed entity is shared by both people, but I could also see the argument for "Kory's and my conversations." It's much more elegant to recast the sentence into something like "our conversations" or "my conversations with Kory", though. Don't try to use I's as a word, kids, unless you's the b'y that builds the boat and you's the b'y that sails her.

(However, on a related note, don't be afraid to use the word me. A lot of people say things like "The b'y caught the fish and brought them home to Lizer and I." These are people who got their knuckles rapped too many times for saying things like "me and Lizer", and now they're overcorrecting, based on the idea that "Lizer and I" is the polite and correct form in all cases. You and Lizer are the objects in this sentence, so "Lizer and me" is in fact correct, as is "me and Lizer", if you want to be a little ruder about it. When in doubt, check by taking the other person out of the sentence. Is it "to I" or "to me"? It's obviously the latter. And while you're at it, don't be overusing myself under the misapprehension that it's a more elegant form of me. Myself is a reflexive pronoun. What that means is that the only person who can do something to yourself is you. Can the b'y catch the fish and bring it home to myself? No. However, I can give myself a headache worrying about these things.)

Anyway, what this jobber Del Salvio is missing, as the Slate article observes, is an understanding of how dictionaries work. You can't campaign to get something in. Dictionaries are descriptivist. They describe how we use words, without making much judgment on whether or not we're using them correctly. (That's what usage guides are for, and Merriam-Webster publishes one of those too as a separate book). So, don't worry, Ray. If enough people are using the word as you say they do, it'll eventually get in and prescriptivists will be a little sadder about the inexorable weirding of the language. But for God's sake, don't get pushy and try to shove English downhill with a petition, you tool.