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In The Martian movie, Matt Damon (Watney), when left stranded on Mars with very limited resources to survive, says:

Mark Watney: In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option, I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this.

Apparently,

  1. Celebrity scientist, Neil Degrasse Tyson loved this quote. And so did I.

  2. A Quora post says

    Watney's a scientist. He's going to use scientific method to solve his problems. It's more obvious in the book - he does a lot of calculations. eg. He drives the rover around in circles logging how much energy it uses to test his hypothesis for carrying hab solar panels on a trailer, keeping within walking distance of the hab. He doesn't just do something and hope it works first time, like MacGyver ('80s TV show).

So you probably get the idea what it means to science the shit out of something.

That is, to practically experiment a lot (and a lot more), in this case, for survival; instead of simply hoping to survive by sheer luck.

1. What would be a better way to convey the same meaning? (too broad)

  1. Is there a better word to use as a verb here?

  2. Is it okay to use certain nouns (like science) in place of verbs? If so, what's the technique called?

Community
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NVZ
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    Verbification of nouns is currently then fad on the Internet: I can't brain today, I forgot how to dog, etc. It's intentionally precious. But it's quite common outside that trend, and has been going on forever. – Dan Bron Feb 11 '16 at 13:37
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    Well-researched question +1). Probably you will get an answer that says "almost all the English nouns could work as verbs". One question per post seems to be the policy and I think Question 1 and 2 could be merged into one. –  Feb 11 '16 at 13:40
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    Just my 2 cents... Movies often don't (and they don't have to) follow the syntaxes, grammar and semantics of a language. This is done to add some humorous undertones or dramatic effect to the dialogues and overall screenplay. If you replace the dialog("to science the shit out") with something else, I don't think it would have created the same amount of impact as it has now. – BiscuitBoy Feb 11 '16 at 13:40
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    -1 for a very sloppy use of the word "better". If you're interested in precise answers, ask precise questions. – TimR Feb 11 '16 at 13:49
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    You will find this question very interesting, Which nouns can be used as verbs?. –  Feb 11 '16 at 13:51
  • It might be OK to verb any noun in informal speech, but not in more formal or standard speech, only those nouns that have been verbified consistently over some time. – Mitch Feb 11 '16 at 14:43
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    Relevant xkcd. – Martin Ender Feb 11 '16 at 16:37
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    @DanBron Since it's ok to verb any noun, "verbify" is rejected as being extraletterific. :-) – Carl Witthoft Feb 11 '16 at 16:51
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    heck, relevant Calvin and Hobbes (from 1993)! – fluffy Feb 11 '16 at 19:33
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    I'm not sure there is a "better" way to express that. It's succinct and gets the point across quite well. – Hot Licks Feb 11 '16 at 19:58
  • So we can verb nouns and noun verbs, basically. :) – NVZ Feb 11 '16 at 20:10
  • @NVZ - Well, you just verbed a noun, so it must be OK. – Hot Licks Feb 11 '16 at 21:10
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    I read the book, and Mark didn't really do much science (hypothesizing, experimenting, etc.) but just lots of engineering (applying existing knowledge, including math, chemistry, etc. to solve problems). Since engineer is already a transitive verb, it would work just fine instead of "science" in this sentence. It just wouldn't have as much punch or flair. Yes, he did testing, but it was testing of his technology designs, not testing of the properties of matter or the laws of chemistry. – LarsH Feb 11 '16 at 22:00
  • Relevant t-shirt – gpvos Feb 11 '16 at 22:36
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    Try the "Search Q&A" box at the top-right corner on this page with "verbing" -- Have fun! – Kris Feb 12 '16 at 09:01
  • See the recent article by Ben Zimmer and this one too – Mitch Feb 12 '16 at 13:44
  • See: "Joss Whedon dialog" for many many examples. – Jesse C. Slicer Feb 12 '16 at 17:30
  • Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/292546/is-to-anagram-an-established-verb – BiscuitBoy Feb 13 '16 at 13:41
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    @Glen_b For ELUers, sth is a "word," having been internalized way back with the first grammar lessons. :) – Kris Feb 14 '16 at 14:39
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    @Kris I seem to be an ELUer (I read, ask, answer, etc here) so this cannot be universally true: my first grammar lessons did not include any such word, nor was such a "word" ever used in my presence by anyone I ever met until I was in my late 40s (&if it's a word rather than abbreviation, how is it pronounced?). Unless you're saying that only people whose background includes this* can be regarded as ELUers (*counting it as a word from the time of their first grammar lessons), my point stands -- expanding "sth" to the thing it abbreviates makes it accessible to people you count as non-ELUers – Glen_b Feb 14 '16 at 16:07
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    @NVZ; Stack Exchange has a strong no-bad-language-in-titles policy, because Hot Network Questions (which this has reached) can get all SE sites banned by company filters. Feel free to use whatever language you like in the body of posts, including complaints about the policy (which should probably be on Meta Stcak Exchange). – Tim Lymington Feb 14 '16 at 20:05
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    @LarsH it's similar to the fact that rocket science is easy (put some fuel in a tube and set fire to it), but rocket engineering is extremely difficult (do so with useful results and without blowing yourself up). – Steve Ives Feb 25 '16 at 18:46
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    Just heard another variation of this phrase. On the March 15 episode of NCIS, Tony says "Let's Abby the hell out of this thing." Abby is the team's tech geek, and he and the rest of the team was entering her lab after being informed that she'd made a breakthrough in the case. – Barmar Mar 24 '16 at 05:37
  • You can verb any noun. – Drew May 01 '16 at 05:10
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    Au contraire, arrivalin, this question has received a lot of attention—and that was before your 200-point bonus came along. – Sven Yargs May 01 '16 at 05:48
  • @arivalin, Sven took the words out of my mouth, 7K views is a very healthy number of views, and there's even an answer with 60 upvotes. You have to say what type of answer "you" are looking for. NVZ does not award the bounty. – Mari-Lou A May 01 '16 at 06:15
  • @Mari-LouA If I asked another question, that would be immediately closed as duplicate. The existing answers are interesting, but... differing. I guess I should have chosen a different reason for bounty. 200 is too much, but I'm new here, so, mistakes happen. – arrivalin May 01 '16 at 08:29
  • @Mari-LouA I'm noticing a lot of down votes now, what have I done? Any idea? – NVZ May 01 '16 at 11:46
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    Matt Damon, when Marsed, and resourced very little, speeched, "I am optioned with one thing: expletiving the science out of this." – Hank D May 03 '16 at 04:53
  • I have a word, but is Portuguese. Seeing the popularity of this question, I am scared to post it as an answer. Would you consider it? – vickyace May 05 '16 at 19:34
  • @vickyace sure, I'd like it. I didn't put the bounty, though. :) – NVZ May 05 '16 at 19:36
  • @NVZ http://www.cracked.com/article_17251_the-10-coolest-foreign-words-english-language-needs_p2.html read desenrascano http://portuguesefordummies.blogspot.in/2007/03/question-5-what-is-desenrascano.html – vickyace May 05 '16 at 19:41
  • @NVZ just something interesting. – vickyace May 05 '16 at 19:42
  • Just make sure you stand back. – Elliott Frisch May 05 '16 at 20:51

8 Answers8

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The rhetorical term for the phenomenon you describe is catachresis.

Catachresis has been defined by Robert A. Harris as "an extravagant, implied metaphor using words in an alien or unusual way." A noun, for example, could be used as a verb, as in the case of "I'm gonna have to science . . .." Harris gives an example which is similar to Matt Damon's sentence:

The little old lady turtled along at ten miles per hour.

A good catachresis creates a word picture. The sentence which contained the word turtled as a verb may solidify, so to speak, the writer's or speaker's idea in the mind of the reader or listener.

The image of an old lady turtling along cements itself in someone's mind more readily than a mere verbal description such as, "The old lady plodded along slowly" (although the word plodded is better than an average word, such as walked).

In conclusion, while the expression "to science something" may not serve to create a word picture, that one word may get a listener to think of the elements of the scientific method (e.g., the control of variables, careful measurements, and hypothesis-making and hypothesis-testing). Now that's an efficient use of words!

rhetorician
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    I like this, but it doesn't tackle the second half of the sentence, where tacking "the shit out of this" as opposed to this implies a task of greater magnitude, intensity, or risk. – corsiKa Feb 11 '16 at 21:06
  • @corsiKa: Good point! Robert Harris's example could be expanded for added magnitude and intensity by inserting the word "defiantly" after "turtled." So you have, "The little old lady turtled along defiantly at ten miles per hour." That provides a funny picture, at least in my mind, of an old lady who doesn't give a s_ _ t if she's frustrating the heck out of the people behind her! Don – rhetorician Feb 11 '16 at 22:20
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    -1 Sorry, but that's just not it. "I will speak daggers to her." has no verbing. Furthermore, catachresis is far more inclusive, very broad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catachresis http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/catachresis – Kris Feb 12 '16 at 08:59
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    "turtled" is also a pun on "hurtled" which would be the word you'd expect to see in such a phrase. – Separatrix Feb 12 '16 at 13:45
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    A pedantic remark about the turtling: she's fairly clearly driving rather than walking, so both "plodded" and "walked" would be unsatisfactory for reasons of correctness rather than vividity. (Walking at 10mph would be really fast.) – Gareth McCaughan Feb 12 '16 at 14:02
  • @Kris: True enough. Then again, I didn't say daggers was a verb, nor did Harris for that matter. I suppose had he wanted to illustrate catechresis with a noun/verb, he would have. By the way, the Wikipedia entry for catechresis also includes this information: "[Catechresis is] also the name given to many different types of figure of speech in which a word or phrase is being applied in a way that significantly departs from conventional (or traditional) usage." Maybe that means "science," as in "science the s_ _ t out of it" does contain an instance of catechresis. Just a thought. Don – rhetorician Feb 12 '16 at 21:42
  • The "turtled" sentence is funny, but I don't really see much similarity with the sentence from The Martian. – Kyle Strand Mar 26 '16 at 20:59
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This question can be approached as one of register.

First, there's an expletive used as an intensifier:

beat the crap out of...knock the hell out of...kick the shit out of...punch the bejeezus out of... etc

He knocked the hell out of Joe Schmoe in the heavyweight bout last year.

Second, there's the use of the noun science as a verb, occupying a particular position in a common intensifier pattern, and thereby associating doing scientific stuff with punching, beating, kicking, knocking, etc. Using the noun as a verb is like using a wrench as a hammer. These two things, noun as (crude) verb, and noun-verb occupying the position of kick, beat, punch in the intensifier pattern, turn his scientific activity into a macho or survivalist enterprise. He is momentarily feigning the register of the macho survivalist.

There's self-deprecating humor (lab geeks laughing at themselves) but also a real swaggering pride taken in his possessing the knowledge that may save his life, the kind of knowledge that could save his home planet's life some day.

So, when the OP asks for a "better" way to say this, the question arises, what does "better" mean? A more polite, or a less swaggering way? That wouldn't be better from the point of view of the story and character. A neutral way would be to say that he intends to use every scientific method at his disposal.

TimR
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Using a noun as a verb is called "verbing" which, appropriately enough, is itself an example of the phenomenon it describes. It's often looked down on as slangy and inelegant, but many common verbs actually started as nouns.

In a single work day, we might head a task force, eye an opportunity, nose around for good ideas, mouth a greeting, elbow an opponent, strong-arm a colleague, shoulder the blame, stomach a loss, and finally, perhaps, hand in our resignation.

...

Psychologist Steven Pinker estimates that up to a fifth of English verbs are derived from nouns--including such ancient verbs as rain, snow, and thunder along with more recent converts like oil, pressure, referee, bottle, debut, audition, highlight, diagnose, critique, email, and mastermind.

http://grammar.about.com/od/grammarfaq/f/verbingfaq.htm

Chris Sunami
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Is it okay to use certain nouns (like science) in place of verbs? If so, what's the technique called?

I notice that no one has given the classical answer to your second question there. The technique is traditionally called "anthimeria" or "antimeria", meaning "against the part". That is, using one part of speech in a manner contrary to its usual function in a sentence. See Wikipedia for numerous examples. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthimeria

Eric Lippert
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As others have mentioned, this is colloquially known as "verbing" a noun. The formal term for this in linguistics is conversion, or zero-derivation:

In linguistics, conversion, also called zero derivation, is a kind of word formation; specifically, it is the creation of a word (of a new word class) from an existing word (of a different word class) without any change in form.

yshavit
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Answering question 1) and 2) only.

Some obvious more proper ways to say it would be to use "scientific method" or a variation of it somewhere in the sentence. It's the most common term.

I'm going to solve this problem using science

I'm going to scientifically solve this problem

I'm going to use the scientific method to solve this problem

I'm going to use the scientific method of problem solving

Oh , and if you really , really want to use a verb:

I'm going to scientize this problem

"to treat scientifically, to apply science to something" (Collins)

I find it awkward, but it's a verb apparently in use since the 1800's.

Community
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P. O.
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This is called verbing; see extended description at the link or in other answers.
Here's the obligatory/famous Calvin & Hobbes on the subject:

WBT
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Try macgyver. It means to make, assemble or repair something by ingenious and inventive improvisation. In other simple terms it means to use ingenuity to fix or remedy a problem using only the tools available at hand.

Mark watney macgyvered a makeshift roof to make room for his equipment ans supplies.

vickyace
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