Blog/2025-12-10/Trespass: Difference between revisions

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Created page with "The word "trespass" is interesting in what it has changed to. Like many other words in the law enforcement or legal space, "I will charge you with X-ing" or "I will eject you for Y" has become "I will X you" or "I will Y you". 'Trespass' is particularly interesting because it was already a transitive verb<ref name=also-noun/> which has caused me some confusion when reading other people's texts. Here's a typical use that someone might make. {{Reddit | url = https://..."
 
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Latest revision as of 07:29, 10 December 2025

The word "trespass" is interesting in what it has changed to. Like many other words in the law enforcement or legal space, "I will charge you with X-ing" or "I will eject you for Y" has become "I will X you" or "I will Y you". 'Trespass' is particularly interesting because it was already a transitive verb[1] which has caused me some confusion when reading other people's texts. Here's a typical use that someone might make.

Reddit•r/bayarea
Social worker fatally stabbed at SF hospital remembered by community as 'devoted to his patients'

...
So it’s a weird situation where it’s legal to have a gun in a hospital, but if the hospital can find it they can trespass you and make you leave...

u/motosandguns••42 points [2]

This usage is quite common across Reddit and so on, but my university also has it among their policies:

Persons may be trespassed from University property on grounds including but not limited to the following...

— North Carolina State University, Policies, Regulations & Rules[3]

I had a moment while drinking coffee this morning to look it up, and other people have also noticed this. It seems to be a phenomenon dating back to the '90s[4], but must not have been as common outside of the US because I've only really noticed in the last few years.

The verbing a noun is quite common in English, obviously, and even in law-enforcement contexts:

Reddit•r/BipolarSOs
In the middle of it– Husband is manic and just committed for a Baker Act Hold

...After a weekend full of police being called and 4 trips to the psych hospital, they chose to Baker Act him, which is a 72 hour involuntary hold...

u/c-faux••5 points•14 comments [5]

So the whole thing shouldn't be surprising. About the only reason I noticed is that this time the noun is also an identically spelled transitive verb. This must be the only case of a transitive verb where the subject and object flip places in two different meanings!

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ It's also a noun, but let's talk about the verb for the moment.
  2. ↑ Permalink: r/bayarea • 1pice3h
  3. ↑ "REG 04.05.01 – Trespass Procedures". NC State University. Retrieved 2025-12-09.
  4. ↑ Neal Whitman (April 25, 2013). "Trespassers Will Be Trespassed". Visual Thesaurus. Retrieved 2025-12-09.
  5. ↑ Permalink: r/BipolarSOs • 1fn3sb7
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