"preventative"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 18, 2004, at 5:23 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> Boston Sunday Globe, July 19, 2004, p.E11
> "... preventative services ..."
> Well,  an ounce of preventation is worth a pound of cure.

ca. 988,000 google web hits.  (compared to ca. 3,140,000 for
"preventive".)  it might not be your idea  of standard, but it's damn
common.  AHD4 lists "preventative" as an alternative to "preventive",
in fact.  MWDEU tells us that "The critics have panned _preventative_
for over a century, preferring its shorter synonym _preventive_ in
spite of the fact that both words have been around for over 300 years
and both have been in regular use by reputable writers."  there is
more, including the analogy to "authoritative" and "talkative".

also: ca. 3,610 hits for "preventation" (which i don't much like, but
there it is).

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)