When is a Noun Not a Noun?

I suppose a constantly advancing technological society like the one we live in requires subsequent updates of the language we use to describe it. Similarly, words we've been using for years take on new meanings, new tenses, or morph into something else entirely. Case in point: Message. When did 'message' become a verb? My friend Tina often calls me triumphantly, exclaiming, "[Insert latest crush's name here] messaged me!"

Come again? Messaged? The funny thing is I find myself using the same lingo on a regular basis.

Last night I tried to remember when I sent my first text message. Who did I send it to? Did someone teach me? I couldn't, for the life of me, remember. Text messaging has become such a natural part of life these days that it's almost impossible to remember what I did without it. (Not to mention cell phones in general, but that just seems like AGES ago).

I do remember that I got my first cell phone when I was 14; my parents are of the strict and overprotective variety (hush Mom, you know it's true) and therefore required that I never leave home without it. I was THE unlucky teenager whose whereabouts were never in question; my mom knew what I had for dinner, who I sat by, what songs we listened to in the car on the way there. I've had the same cell phone number for over 10 years! Thank you, Verizon, you are the network. I digress...

The point is now that the majority of cell phone-wielding Americans have a pretty comprehensive text messaging plan as part of their monthly access, it's time we embrace the changes in our language that must inevitably occur. It's not that messaged/messaging/messages (as the present tense verb, not the plural noun) didn't exist as words before, it's just that they will now increasingly become part of our vernacular.

Dictionary.com lists it as a verb, albeit seemingly as an afterthought, but hey, it's in there. Get the message?