It is still peeving. I totally agree there is a change in relative frequency. I think the pause button on tape machines, video playback, etc. has made it a muc

It is still peeving. I totally agree there is a change in relative frequency. I think the pause button on tape machines, video playback, etc. has made it a much more common word. The recency illusion is when, for example, you think the verb sense of "to pause" was something new, when it is centuries old. That can't be precisely your point, as Shakespeare used pause as a verb, as https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/search/search-results.php https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/search/search-results.... shows. But you are really complaining about "to pause <X>", like how this 20+ year old example from the patent at https://patents.google.com/patent/US6567787B1/en?q=(%22disadvantageous%22)&oq=%22disadvantageous+to+pause+transactions%22 https://patents.google.com/patent/US6567787B1/en?q=(%22disad... uses "For example, if there are many customers waiting in line, it is disadvantageous to pause transactions since that would increase the waiting time of those customers." or when IBM in 1985 or so wrote "Only the computer that paused printing can continue printing" at https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpclanNe6361559IBMPCNetworkProgram1.0UsersGuide1_12755008/page/5-39/mode/2up?q=%22paused+printing%22 https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpclanNe6361559IBMPC... Why does that get you worked up? Language changes all the time, and this process started at least by the time I was a teenager.