Goes back at least as far as 1781: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4246/can-or-should-ask-ever-be-used-as-a-noun http://english.stackexchange.com/qu

Goes back at least as far as 1781: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4246/can-or-should-ask-ever-be-used-as-a-noun http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4246/can-or-shoul... Nouning verbs (like verbing nouns) is very common in English, to the extent it's often unclear which came first.