"preventative"

[Michael Quinion]

Peter McGraw wrote:

> 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").

My elderly British ears demand "preventative", but a perusal of the
relevant article in the Third Edition of Fowler suggests that I am
out of step with reality.

A superficially similar pair that has caused me some problems is
"interpretive" - "interpretative". I was a heritage interpreter at
one time and this came up frequently, because the interpretation
profession here has standardised on "interpretive", but we regularly
received complaints that our syncopation was unwarranted.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>