Q: I saw this headline over an NPR article: “VP Vance tries to progress Gaza ceasefire.” Is that a permissible use of “progress”? I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen it used like that, but I’m slow to pick up on the evolution of English.
A: That usage is somewhat controversial. The verb “progress,” used in that particular way, is frowned upon by standard American dictionaries but is acceptable in British English.
We’ve written about the uses of “progress” as a verb in two of our previous posts—in 2010 and again in 2022.
The 2022 post discusses “progress” as an intransitive verb (one without an object) meaning simply to go forward, as in “the construction progressed.” This use is not unusual.
English borrowed the word “progress” from Latin, where progressus referred to a forward movement, an advance, or a development. It appeared as a noun in the 15th century and a verb in the 16th.
We cite many examples from the Oxford English Dictionary as we show how the verb progressed over the years. We especially like this one from Shakespeare’s King John, believed written in the mid-1590s:
“Let me wipe off this honourable dewe, / That siluerly doth progresse on thy cheekes.”
Our 2010 post discusses “progress” in the sense you ask about—as a transitive verb (i.e., one that takes a direct object and means to move something forward), as in “the builder progressed the construction.”
In that post, we answer a question about a transitive use by Sarah Palin in 2008, the year she ran for vice president as the Republican nominee: “Let’s talk about progressing this nation.”
As we mentioned, this transitive use is not recognized in American English dictionaries, including American Heritage, Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, and Webster’s New World.
However, the OED (an etymological dictionary), and the latest editions of Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage include the transitive use. And so do standard British dictionaries like Cambridge, Collins, and Longman.
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