alt Hacker NewsTrespassing (intransitive) is different from trespassing someone (transitive). It’s not unusual for a verb to mean something different when used transitively versus when used intransitively. To “trespass” someone (transitive) means to ban that someone from a property. Wiktionary provides examples of “trespass” used in this sense as early as 1946.
> albeit sa uniquely american one? Never heard this from e.g. Brits
According to this lexicography blog post, datasets reveal the transitive definition to be most common in New Zealand. https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/trespassers-wi...
Here are some examples of it being used on a NZ website: https://www.police.govt.nz/use-105/trespass
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Very interesting! This one finally answers my question!
In summary:
(1) It's not an American thing at all. I was wrong.
(2) It's not new. I was wrong.
(3) It has its roots in authorities charging or threatening to charge someone with the act of trespassing. I learned something today :-)
TLDR: "I was trespassed" means "I was charged with the crime of trespassing" (or "threatened with being charged with the crime of tresapssing").
> It’s not unusual for a verb to mean something different when used transitively versus when used intransitively.
Can you please give other examples? I can't think of any and I can't let it go