... only when used in sequence with the select.

I'm thinking that complaint is that something like (e.g.) "Filter" would mean the same thing and be a verb describing the action being taken.

In SQL it does.

The whole point of LINQ is to add query-like functionalities to C#. LINQ stands for "Language-Integrated Query"

from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397926.aspx

"Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) is a set of features introduced in Visual Studio 2008 that extends powerful query capabilities to the language syntax of C# and Visual Basic. LINQ introduces standard, easily-learned patterns for querying and updating data, and the technology can be extended to support potentially any kind of data store. Visual Studio includes LINQ provider assemblies that enable the use of LINQ with .NET Framework collections, SQL Server databases, ADO.NET Datasets, and XML documents."

Here it's a misuse of notation.