Back when I was in high school, my friends thought of me as a goof ball, mainly because I liked to mess with their heads on stuff. If they couldn't find something, I'd tell them it was "over there" like I really knew where it was. I didn't, but I pointed any way and they looked around like I really knew what I was talking about. I laughed, and they huffed at me, but then they laughed too. Aside from that, if someone said that something on their body itched, I told them to "itch it" knowing full well that that was not the correct use of that word. Anytime I did, they'd tell me, "you can't itch an itch" then I'd ask "why not" and then we'd get into this discussion... Well now I want to discuss it again, tell why I think you should be able to "itch an itch" and also why this phrase is not acceptable in the English language.

The word itch can be used as a noun or a verb. Going word for word, noun:

1. A skin irritation causing a desire to scratch
2. A restless desire
3. Any skin disorder, such as scabies, characterized by intense itching

Now verb:

1. To feel an irritating or tickling sensation
2. To have a restless desire (to do something): they were itching to join the fight

Compliments of thefreedictionary.com.

Now, I know everyone knows what an itch is. I just wanted you all to know that I'm serious about this argument. So to go further, I asked the net if I could itch an itch. This is what it gave me at WikiAnswers.com:

"Scratch an itch, itching an itch would be basically saying the same thing as hairing my hair instead of brushing my hair which is what scratching an itch is comparable to."

Apparently, there's more people that have asked the question, but stopped their query after getting that response. It makes a very good point, you can't hair your hair, that doesn't even sound right. Besides, hair is a noun, at least I've never heard hair being used as a verb. I wanted to see if I could find more feedback about this query and I found a similar question: "Do you scratch an itch or do you itch a scratch?" On the same site as the previous question, I got this answer:

"The act of agitating the skin as to relieve a sensation or irritation is called scratching. Thusly, you would need to 'scratch an itch'. It is physically impossible to 'itch a scratch', no matter how hard you try."

That got me thinking that this was the end of my quest. Then I thought some more, and even though by definition they are right, I still think it makes sense to itch an itch. My main reason, is that "itch" is a noun and a verb. In sentence structure, it fits. What also got me thinking that this ought to be acceptable, is that you can use "itch" in abstract. You can get an itch to do something, like clean house, travel, to get up and do anything. You can even figuratively get an itchy palm, like when someone is standing over you wanting you to give them a tip, money. Even a seven-year itch, common for married couples. As if to say they have an itch to go look for someone else to...do stuff with. If "itch" makes sense in abstract form, why can't we use itch an itch in physical form?

On the Hub pages request forum, I wanted feedback to my question but only got one response. The last question this person left for me was "Can you scratch a scratch?" My response was that if I have a scratch on my leg and it itches, I'm going to scratch it. So yes, I can scratch a scratch. Then I asked for more feedback, didn't get any, so here I am writing a hub about it. So it brought up another question, if I can scratch a scratch, why can't I itch an itch?

I already know that my English majors don't agree that you can "itch an itch" just because of the literal meaning of the word. Itch, even in its noun form, is not a thing, its a sensation sent from the brain to any part of the body and tells us to scratch in order to relieve this sensation. Even as a verb, its not really an action, its still just a sensation, something that we can feel happening physically to our body, or a feeling to get up and do something when feeling restless. This is basically an abstract word to be used as an urge or desire. With all that said, my "itch" to write this article has been fulfilled. Hopefully, this helps answer the question of whether we can itch an itch that me and others thought was possible. If you're feeling itchy now, itch it anyway!