I needed 3 googles to understand the etymology. But seriously, why is ask being ...

SatvikBeri · on Nov 29, 2012

In the business world, ask has been used as a noun at least since 1985 ("I understand it's a big ask...")[1]

podperson · on Nov 29, 2012

Goes back at least as far as 1781:

Nouning verbs (like verbing nouns) is very common in English, to the extent it's often unclear which came first.

ArbitraryLimits · on Nov 29, 2012

It's either New York-ese or investment banker-ese (hard to distinguish between the two sometimes). They also nounify "spend" for some reason.

sixothree · on Nov 29, 2012

Ask as a shorted version of Ask Price is something I can understand. But the other uses I see appear awkward.

pbreit · on Nov 30, 2012

What the heck does "Ask Price" mean? Never heard that.

"Ask" as a noun, however, I hear all the time...and not from bankers or New Yorkers. It's very common in Bay Area tech.