A Good Verb Dragooned

Help! Desperate writers have commandeered “hijack.” Best used to describe what mobsters do to trucks and pirates do to ships, hijack has lately been forced to portray all manner of dull activity.

In major U.S. newspapers, the word was contorted in 43% of its 2,202 recent appearances. Things hijacked in 2004 included trials, meetings, foreign policy, elections, President Reagan’s legacy, cable news, two chapters of a book on autism, Broadway musicals and the moral high ground. The institution of marriage narrowly escaped from ring-toting homosexuals. New York Times foodie Frank Bruni complained his meal was “hijacked by the high jinks” of a belly dancer. In the L.A. Times, Al Pacino hijacked a crowd of red-carpet gawkers, which you think would have been bigger news.

Hijack also described the defacing of websites, spyware’s obscene suggestions and spam. Was “hacking” just not vigorous enough?

If this keeps up, we’re going to find this verb for sale behind a New Jersey warehouse. It fell off a truck.

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-- Brendan Buhler