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Noun Verber: Difference between revisions
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This isn't a very popular trope for the actual titles of movies or TV shows, but it's an old standby for lazy fantasy and science fiction authors who need a name that sounds detached from the real world and yet is immediately understandable. For some reason, a very common verb for this is "stalk." The most common noun is probably "death."
Of course this construction is ''extremely'' common in [[Real Life]] too. Firefighter, cab-driver, wine-maker, ironmonger, car dealer, [[Ambulance Chaser]], ditch-digger, lion-tamer, news-reader, coal-miner, watchmaker, computer programmer, bartender, gas-fitter, dishwasher, childminder, wine-taster, greengrocer, snack-dispenser, bricklayer, dressmaker, chess-player, piano-tuner etc. etc.
Compare [[Luke Nounverber]], when the same principle is applied to character names. See also [[We Will Use Wiki Words in the Future]].
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* In the comic book tradition of doing this with super-person codenames, the [[Whateley Universe]] has one of its heroines named Bladedancer. Not to mention side characters like Shadowdancer.
* In ''~The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy~'', Arthur Dent is... [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|The Sandwich Maker.]]
* Less often done in the "hero pulps", but often in the paperback original series of the 1960's to 1980's. The Executioner, the Penetrator, the Sharpshooter, the Liquidator, the Destroyer, the Butcher, the Nazi Hunter, the Terminator, the Revenger, the Avenger, the Protector, etc. stand as examples. Many retrospectives on the paperback original trend (e.g. Jeff Siegel's The American Detective: An Illustrated History, Sons of Sam Spade, Geherin in American Private Eye, Warren Murphy's article in The Fine Art of Murder, Murder Off the Rack's Matt Helm article) derisively point out how common the agent noun series title turned out.
* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the]]'' '''''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|Dawn Treader]]'''''
* In the [[Black Company]] series by Glen Cook, most of the original Ten Who Were Taken with the exception of the Limper and the Howler. (Stormbringer, Soulcatcher, Bonegnasher, Moonbiter...the list goes on. Most are [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], too.)
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The ''[[Babylon 5]]'' villain Deathwalker.
** And don't forget the Soul Hunters.
* ''[[Kolchak the Night Stalker]]''
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''
* ''[[Community|Punch Kicker]]'' and his nemesis ''Kick Puncher''.
* ''[[Farscape]]'' appears to subvert this trope. The Peacekeepers are much more unnecessarily violent and cruel than peaceful, but the majority of them seem to believe they are doing what's right to protect the galaxy, even when they do more harm than good. In "The Peacekeeper Wars", it is revealed that {{spoiler|a group of the shared ancestors of Humans and Sebaceans were taken from their homeworld by Eidelons, a group of very powerful negotiators who can influence rationality in others, and used to keep the peace after negotiations finished. Once the Eidelons disappeared, the Peacekeepers kept peace the only way they could, "at the barrel of a gun"}}, indicating that originally, at least, the trope was played pretty straight.
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== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' is positively brimming with Nounverbers, such as the famous Planeswalkers. Many of their nounverbers verb nouns with verbs that don't even make sense. How does one [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=29709 weave smoke?] Or [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=139465 braid it?] How does one [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=121133 grin gristle?] Why would some elves who live in the wild want to [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=135436 slay it?] What's so great about [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=118912 a creature who can see something six feet away?] And who would ever want to [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=28009 buy spirits from a giant monster?]
** Aw, c'mon, at least ''one'' of those is an Adjective Verber. Also, I think it is a creature made of gristle that is grinning.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' also has its fair share of monsters that are nounverbers, most famously the Mind Flayer.
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' has a few Chaos Legions that fit this trope - Word Bearers & World Eaters, for example.
** As does the Imperium. The Blood Drinkers and Flesh Tearers. Yes, those are the good guys (relatively speaking, of course).
== [[This Very Wiki]] ==
* '''[[Trope Namer]]'''
* ''[[Noun Verber]]''
* [[Ambulance Chaser]]
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* [[Fate]] has many examples of [[Noun Verber|Noun Verbers]] in its randonly-generated monster names. Each part of the names is picked at random from a list.
* And who can forget ''[[Landstalker]]''?
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]: '''Snake Eater'''''
* In the opening sequence of [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[[Zork]]: The Undiscovered Underground'' (a prelude to ''[[Zork: Grand Inquisitor]]'' done in the style of golden-age [[Infocom]]), desperately trying to get out of a dangerous assignment, the player character rattles off the names of a half-dozen [[Noun Verber|Noun Verbers]] better qualified for the job. He is cut off as he asks about "Kolchak the--"
* ''[[Tom Clancy]]'s [[Ghost Recon]]'': '''''Advanced Warfighter'''''.
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