"preventative"

[Sean Fitzpatrick]

Boston Sunday Globe, July 19, 2004, p.E11

"... preventative services ..."

Well,  an ounce of preventation is worth a pound of cure.

-Wilson Gray
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Hardly a hapax legomenon.  See the list below from Bartleby's.

The Army Commendation Medal (for service) was awarded for little more than keeping your nose clean and going along with the program--if a Good Conduct Medal is a D, the ARCOM is a gentleman's C.  I knew a guy whose job was processing recommendations to ARCOMs who consistently referred to the Army "Accommodation" Medal.  I thought at first he was being sarcastic and subversive, but it turned out he just didn't know "commendation" is a word.

Seán Fitzpatrick
It's a Gnostic thing. You wouldn't understand.
http://www.logomachon.blogspot.com/

1) preventative. Roget s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. 1995. 
...Defending against disease: preventive, prophylactic, protective. See ALLOW. 2. Intended to prevent: deterrent, preclusive, preventive. See ALLOW....

2) preventative. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. 
...ADJECTIVE & Variant of preventive....

1) preventative, preventive. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993 
...two are synonyms, and each is Standard as both adjective and noun: She practices preventive [preventative] medicine-if you can call eating an apple a day a preventative...

2) Formations. Fowler, H. W. 1908. The King's English 
...Innumerable other needless lengthenings might be produced, from which we choose only preventative for preventive, and to experimentalize for to experiment. On the...