"preventative"

[Beverly Flanigan]

OK, a reply:  I don't think any of the "-ated" forms are regional, or
necessarily rural, and I've never thought of them as "hickish"--whatever
that means.

At 03:07 PM 7/19/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>--On Monday, July 19, 2004 12:16 PM -0400 "Dennis R. Preston"
><preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
>
>>Is "hickish" a technical term?
>
>Not to my knowledge.  The reason I used it is that it seemed to come as
>close as any word I could find to conveying the (yes, mildly negative)
>stereotyping that for me is associated with the use of "orientated" in
>Am.E.  This stereotyping is nowhere near as sharp or specific (to my ear,
>at least) as the connotations conveyed by the alternatives you mention.
>
>I considered the "hickish" sentence carefully before hitting the "send"
>button, because I thought it might prompt responses hotly denying that the
>use of "orientated" was associated with uneducated rural speakers of
>Am.E.--and I wondered if there would be any regional pattern to these
>responses.  So far there have been no such responses.  Maybe the sentence
>wasn't a good trigger, or maybe everybody shares my associations with
>"orientated"--or maybe lots of people are on vacation at the moment.
>
>Peter Mc.
>
>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
>
>
>
>*****************************************************************
>Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
>******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************