"preventative"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Is "hickish" a technical term? Maybe just to be more PC you should
say it sounds "red-neckish" or "shit-kickerish" or even
"trailer-trashy" to you.

dInIs (a hick)

>I seem to hear both "preventive" and "preventative" all the time and to use
>them indiscriminately myself.  Nonetheless, I wonder if any of our U.K.
>list members would care to weigh in on whether there is a preference on
>their side of the pond for either one or the other, perhaps paralleling the
>British preference for "orientated," which sounds hickish to educated
>American ears (as opposed to "oriented").
>
>Peter Mc.
>
>
>--On Sunday, July 18, 2004 10:55 PM -0700 "Arnold M. Zwicky"
><zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
>
>>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)
>
>
>
>*****************************************************************
>Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
>******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736