I work in a lab studying heavy metal transport in the body, and we use the word 'efflux' to describe the active transport of metal out of a cell. My problem is that people have started talking about cells 'effluxing metal', which i do not believe is correct. Unfortunately, my use of English is largely based on instinct, so i cannot contrive a convincing argument against it. I am afraid this phrase will spread throughout the scientific community (as 'quantitate' has) if I do not stifle their creative instinct now. Can anyone offer a grammatical explanation for why this word can't be converted in this way?