Re: Noun, Re: Verb

I've written in the past about the red tape holds up new bridge school of headline writing. Sometimes, though, it's not so much that headlines are inadvertently funny as they are completely unintelligible.

One reason for that unintelligibility is the thoughtless use of words that have more than one part of speech. Usually, it's because they can be either nouns or verbs, as in this fine example from the Pioneer Press on January 19, 2009.

I read this headline three or four times before I understood what it said. As one might logically assume, I thought the first word was a noun and the second one was a verb -- a detainee was releasing something. Then I found the word "show" -- well, that can be a noun. A detainee was releasing a show. Hmm. Then the word "cracks," and I was completely stumped. "Show cracks?", I thought.

Deciding I had gotten it wrong from the start, I returned to the first word, until I finally parsed it: The fact that the government had to release detainees was revealing cracks in the legal cases against the detainees.

This is an extra-fine set of words that can switch-hit as either noun or verb. Releases, show, cracks -- even cases could be a verb, although in this example it's clearly a noun.

Is there a term for these double-agent words? I don't remember ever hearing one, so I thought I would come up with one. Here are my offerings:

• Nerb -- Nice and short, combining noun and verb. Unfortunately, it sounds like some hipsters have already started using the word to combine nerd and noob (as if I was even aware that noob was a word... yes, I really am that out of it).
  
• Syntax evader -- Clever, but a bit vague, and kind of long.
• Ambilogism or maybe ambilog -- Good academic credibility, and bonus points for combining a Latin prefix with a Greek root.
• Starts of peach -- Every list needs at least one Spoonerism.
  

Which one would you vote for? Or do you have any better ideas?