Why is "rollback it" incorrect?

Question

I recently wrote the following sentence:

Please roll it back.

But if I were to describe the action on its own I would say:

This rollback was due to objections by the original author.

If I want to use "rollback" as a verb I have to split it up with an "it". My best guess is that "rollback" seems to be a compound noun birthed from a verb+adverb but we never got a verb compound form. Thus, the following is still incorrect:

Please rollback it.

Is there a term to describe the specific pair of "roll" and "back"? Describing this specific action will always need both words and the action itself now has an appropriate noun. But where did the combined verb form go?

John Lawler · Accepted Answer

Roll back is a standard phrasal verb. Roll is the verb part, and back is the particle.
Rollback (stress on first syllable) is an event nominalization from roll back (stress on second).

As a phrasal verb, roll back participates in the usual alternation with direct objects:

Roll the carpet/budget back. (Vb + Noun DO + Particle -- OK)
Roll back the carpet/budget. (Vb + Particle + Noun DO -- OK)
Roll it back. (Vb + Pronoun DO + Particle -- OK)
*Roll back it. (Vb + Particle + Pronoun DO -- NOT OK)

So there are two reasons why *rollback it is incorrect:

rollback is a noun derived from roll back, and not a verb itself, so it can't take a direct object.  
roll back is a phrasal verb and must place pronoun direct objects between verb and particle.

Oldcat · Answer

"Rollback" is the name of the operation done when you "Roll [a file] Back" to an earlier version. (Usually this is as a part of a change management system).

It isn't a verb. It is a noun made from a verb already.  There's no sense in verbifying the noun obtained from nounifying a verb. What would happen when you described that?  You could repeat forever.

You either "perform a Rollback Operation or you Roll the file back and call the action Rollback.

Leif · Answer

Revert might be a suitable alternative to rollback in your example.

Please revert it.

Edwin Ashworth · Answer

According to the Google dictionary (though not as yet AHD or Collins), the word rollback is also a compound verb (sense (1) here ):

verb  (COMPUTING)
verb: rollback; 3rd person present: rollbacks; past tense:
rollbacked; past participle: rollbacked; gerund or present
participle: rollbacking; verb: roll-back; 3rd person present:
roll-backs; past tense: roll-backed; past participle: roll-backed;
gerund or present participle: roll-backing

restore (a database) to a previously defined state.

It is such a recent development from roll + back that 'rollback it' sounds unnatural. 'Rollback X' (X a noun group other than a pronoun) sounds like 'roll back X' which isn't so outlandish. Almost certainly, 'rollback it' will become more common, especially with padding: 'rollback it to the last-but-one state'.
Compound verbs from the fusion of verb + adverb are usually head-second:
downsize;   upgrade;   outsource;   input;   overpay
– so the addition of an object, including it, doesn't sound too bad.
It appears that 'voiceover / voice-over' has been analogously verbed.

Why is "rollback it" incorrect?

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