Nouns get verbed people, get over it.
Here's a few of Bill's which you might regret the loss of
to cake (Timon of Athens, first attestation as a verb)
to champion (Macbeth; first attestation as a verb, and in an older sense of "to challenge"; though the noun was familiar as someone who would fight for another)
to comply (Othello)
to dislocate (King Lear, refers to anatomy)
to drug (Macbeth; first use as a verb)
to educate (Love's Labour's Lost)
to elbow (King Lear; first use as a verb)
to enmesh (Othello)
to ensnare (Othello)
to gossip (The Comedy of Errors; first use as a verb; "gossip" was one's familiar friends)
to humour (Love's Labour's Lost, first attestation as a verb)
to hurry (Comedy of Errors, first attestation as verb)
to impede (Macbeth, first use as verb, though "impediment" was already widely used)
to lapse (several, first attestation as a verb, though already familiar as a noun)
to launder (first use as a verb; "laundress" was in common use)

They probably all sounded strange to early modern ears but they bed in. Personally I'm not wild about "to action" but there it is. If they are useful they thrive if not they wither away
(unclestinky, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 16:58, 5 replies)

Indeed
Also to cunt in the fuck (Henry V)
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 17:01, closed)

and
to leverage new keyturn solutions (The Tempest)
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 17:04, closed)

You don't think this might simply have been ..
.... the first surviving written use of these words in this way?

It seems very difficult to believe that an "impediment" existed without it being something which "impedes". Possible, but not likely.
( Ugi , it's a game of give and cake, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 18:15, closed)

it's possible
but the point remains unchanged by the priority. At some time these words made the switch, (transitioned if you will) from being nouns into being also verbs. The root of impediment is impedire, a hindrance. Which is the noun,
(unclestinky, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 21:48, closed)

Fair enough
although the change from noun to verb as a word is incorporated into the language is perhaps a little more understandable.

I feel that quite often what people object to is the perceived "laziness" of using a noun as a verb where a perfectly good verb or phrase of equivalent meaning already exists. It's also a good reason to dislike Americans!

I suspect linguistic purity is largely a cover-story.
( Ugi , it's a game of give and cake, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 9:37, closed)