Has the word addicting made it into your vocabulary?

I cannot bear the word. It’s popping up everywhere. I’ll stick to addictive. I can’t think of any other new words at the minute that make me cringe, apart from the typical text talk. I’m not a fan of that either

I’m addicted only to “addictive,” and by the way, I’m awfully tired of “awesome” and “magical.”

@Austinlad I have to agree with you on awesome, it seems that every enjoyable experience in a teenager’s life these days is awesome. In England I think superlatives have become the accepted norm in part due to advertising, even cheap furniture is described as incredible, with amazing savings in store, and an astounding range of colours. If you enjoy a funfair ride the usual words that one associates with furniture are not really adequate to sum up the fun you’ve had, and so awesome kind of fits the bill.

Cool.

I’m predicting that addicting will be exiting soon.

“addict” has been a verb since the 1500s, long before it was used as a noun. “addicting” has been used as a participle adjective since 1939:

Listener 23 Sept. 465/1 Lysergic acid..is not addicting.

It’s no different than how we use some other ”-ing” forms. For instance:
I’m bored. This is boring.
I’m tired. This is tiring.
I’m addicted. This is addicting.

I didn’t know using the word addicting was ‘grammatically dubious’ – I suppose I’ll pay more attention, now.

@morphail You are correct of course, and in no way would I make an attempt to correct somebody who uses the word, in fact it does seem logical to use addicting in the instance you describe. But that is partly why I ask the question, I believe that over time addicting will supercede our use of addictive, but I do find it hard to accept and I don’t understand exactly why. I usually embrace change, I am not qualified to be pedantic when it comes to grammar, so I cannot understand my own aversion to this particular word.

@Rewgreen it might be because the verb is usually only used as a passive and reflexive:
I’m addicted to coffee.
I’ve addicted myself to coffee.
but not:
?Coffee addicts me.
So the “ing” form used in an active sense might sound a little odd to some people.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir what I mean by that is that I don’t want to go down the route of arguing about the words credentials within this thread, to some people the word is still not acceptable. I believe that it is still not yet defined in all English dictionaries and I recently read that English teachers are not totally accepting of it.

“Accept” (v.) takes the direct object, speaking of grammar. Teachers do not accept that yet.

And watch your punctuation. You need quotation marks around a word you are discussing.
Clear and proper usage is not pedantic; it is a way of making your readers understand you without reading the text three times.

@gailcalled I don’t see what’s wrong with “accepting of”, as in “They’re not as accepting of that as I am”; “I’m more accepting of it than they are” etc.

It’s grammatically correct but awkward and wordy in the context used above.. “The fewer words to make my point, the better” is my mantra.

You are using “accepting” to mean “tolerate.” The example of “what teachers accept” means “to deem right or proper.” There is a subtle difference. Vive la difference.

“To regard as proper, usual, or right: Such customs are widely accepted.
To regard as true; believe in: Scientists have accepted the new theory.” Source

@gailcalled OK, but you brought this up in the context of grammar. But grammar has nothing to do with it, @Rewgreen didn’t write anything ungrammatical. And it seems that you’re assuming they meant something by “accepting” that they might not have meant.

@True; in context, it was usage. And there’s the issue of punctuation, which I skipped over.For example, If you are talking about a word, such as “addicting,” you need quotes around it for clarity. (Υοu gave us a good example.)

I was seriously going to ask the exact same question today. I’m glad that I didn’t, because I would have looked like a real idiot.

I hate that people are using “addicting”. It just irks me to no end. I like “addictive”, also. So you’re not alone in that, at least.

Hmm, I’m guilty of this. Oops. Never noticed it before, but I guess it just pops out while I’m typing. Not just the “addicting” way, too. I think I call myself an addict in a very loose way. I say I’m addicted to a game, yet I can very happily live without it and have done so.

My pet-peeve isn’t with a word, however. I get annoyed when people on computer games get annoyed by my use of correct punctuation and grammar. It’s like they’ve never seen a period other than in emoticons, and apparently commas are outlawed in pc games (or so it would seem.)

Ha ha that’s funny! Really? Is this a new word? I don’t have a problem w/ it. It’s been in my vocabulary for 36 years. I do have a problem w/ the word “whatever”!!!