Winning medals is so old school.. Now you just 'medal'!

Olympic athletes used to win medals. Now they just “medal.” Commentators and competitors, it seems, can’t stop using it as a verb. Cue fury on Twitter, with many decrying “medaled” and “medaling” as bad English. [caption id=“attachment_404171” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AP[/caption] Step forward John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. Get used to it, he says. The OED has long recognized “medal” as a verb. It even cites the earliest example of it from a letter written by Lord Byron in 1822. What’s more, Simpson adds, podium - as in “she podiumed” - could soon join it. “It is not unlikely for it to switch to a verb,” he says. Grammarians may grumble - but it has led to at least one joke. “All I wanted was a gold medal,” says the Scooby-Doo villain. “And I would have gotten away with it - had it not been for those medaling kids.” Associated Press