Can 'Ask' Be a Noun?

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from a listener named Luana. She wrote, 

“My husband works in sales, and the phrase ‘The ask is…' is frequently used.

It's a new way of saying ‘The request is….' I'm curious about the origins of this, and if ‘ask’ can be used as a noun.

'Ask' as a Noun

What was especially interesting, was that I haven’t heard this question before, but I also did a radio interview that week and someone from Ohio asked a similar question, and then I saw someone from the ACLU tweeting that a lawyer from the Department of Justice said it’s “a lot to ask” of the government to absorb the cost of reunifying the families it tore apart, but then he looked as his notes revised the tweet saying the lawyer actually didn’t say “It’s a lot to ask,” he said “It’s a huge ask,” so in addition to the people calling and writing about using “ask” as a noun, I saw this other instance of a federal lawyer using “ask” as a noun too—all in one week.

But like so many things that seem new once you start noticing them, when I started doing research, using “ask” as a noun turned out to be about as old as you can get. 

The Oxford English Dictionary shows that “ask” has been used as a noun since Old English. The word “request” didn’t even show up until the mid-1300s. It came to English from Old French like so many words during that time.

'A Big Ask'

The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for the phrase “big ask” and says it originated in Australia.

The more specific phrase like the one the lawyer used—it’s a big ask—is more recent. The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for the phrase “big ask” and says it originated in Australia. The first citation is from 1987. 

The OED claims that the phrase “big ask” is usually used in sports contexts—for example, in this sentence the dictionary cites from “Rugby World”: “It was a huge ask of my players, but their attitude throughout the week prior to the game was superb”—but my personal experience and research tell me that at least in the United States, “the ask” is also used to describe asking for money—one fundraiser might ask another “How did the ask go?” or give advice “You need to get to the ask faster.” And it can also just mean a significant or difficult request, as in “I know it’s...

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