Carjacking

EMorse · **Posted:** Sat Apr 17, 2004 12:27 am

Here's something that caused a minor kerfuffle on our desk the other night:
Can "carjack" be used as a transitive verb? The sentence in question went something like this: An unidentified man carjacked a 28-year-old woman in a mall parking lot.
If the transitive use is proper, is the victim or the car the object of the carjacking? My feeling is that the car is the object, but it sounds silly to say "He carjacked the woman's car," so we should probably just write around it (our dictionary backs me up; it lists "carjacking" as a noun, with no verb form).
Thoughts?

Rio · **Posted:** Sat Apr 17, 2004 12:56 am

"Carjack" not only can be used as a transitive verb, it's the only way it can be used as a verb.And one carjacks motor vehicles, not the driver and/or passengers. Webster's definition of "carjacking" is "the taking of an occupied vehicle by force." That doesn't seem to leave any room for doubt. By the way, what dictionary are you using? My fourth edition of Webster's lists "carjack" as the transitive-verb form of "carjacking."If you don't want to say a guy "carjacked a car," say he "carjacked a vehicle." Problem solved.[ April 17, 2004: Message edited by: Gary Kirchherr ]

Dapper Dan · **Joined:** Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:01 am **Posts:** 273

Or "stole her car at gunpoint."

Jackie · **Posted:** Sun Apr 18, 2004 11:20 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by EMorse:
The sentence in question went something like this: An unidentified man carjacked a 28-year-old woman in a mall parking lot.
<hr></blockquote>I'm confused. Did the woman remain in the car? I thought that was called a kidnapping.
(It's just that I've never seen a story that said a person had been carjacked.)[ April 19, 2004: Message edited by: Jackie ]

EMorse · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2004 4:30 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jackie:
I'm confused. Did the woman remain in the car? I thought that was called a kidnapping.
(It's just that I've never seen a story that said a person had been carjacked.)[ April 19, 2004: Message edited by: Jackie ]<hr></blockquote>Yes, the woman was kidnapped in the course of the carjacking (she was later released more or less unharmed and the bad guy was caught) ... a big part of the contention over the use of the term. I think the city desk in this case was simply in love with the term "carjacking" and determined to use it regardless of how well it fit. I think in later stories, we used kidnapping and robbery to describe the events.

Jackie · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2004 12:01 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by EMorse:
The sentence in question went something like this: An unidentified man carjacked a 28-year-old woman in a mall parking lot.
<hr></blockquote>Seems to me that a kidnapped woman is much more serious, and more newsworthy, than a stolen car. (Okay, I can already hear a few of you guys begging to differ.) Did someone on the desk actually try to make a case otherwise in a bid to keep the much-beloved "carjacked"?

EMorse · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:44 pm

I was on the periphery of the discussion, so I'm not sure who might have made a case for what. It was a breaking-news story on deadline, and I think probably the matter was originally reported as a carjacking, and people zeroed in on that word, which is sexy and au courant. As I noted, follow-up stories shifted to kidnapping references, so the notion that a kidnapping is pretty damn serious finally percolated through. Just not on deadline, apparently.

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