perpetrator / perpetrate / perpetrative

[Jonathan Lighter]

Maybe this was discussed long ago.  "Perpetrator" has recently generalized into "wrongdoer or miscreant," and comes with the corresponding "perpetrate" and "perpetrative."

These are just a few exx. (It helps to misspell the word.)

"I just dont want to do recovery with you, and I find your unsoliceted
opinions unwelcomed and perpatrative to me.

"I dont expect you to understand that you are a perpatrator, nor more then
I expect Ice or Buff or Kaitlyn to understand they are perpatrators."

------"Hey Mensa Head," alt.abuse.recovery (June 29, 1997).

"the Christian Nazi . . . got to perpatrate on Sonoma County Citizens legally

----"Another SAMM Voter Recommendation, "alt.california (Oct. 24, 1998).

"No, you kicked your daughter out, that make you a perpatrator."

----"evolution is chance as explained by scientists," alt.info-science  (Apr. 6, 1999).

"How many people would now stop to help you if you
were down and injured by some nasty perpatrator not many I can tell ya."

----"The Good Ole Days?" alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic (May 26, 1999).

I don't call these usages slang. They undoubtedly derive from a simple misunderstanding of the customary meaning of "perpetrator" via the popular division of society into "perpetrators and victims."

Of  slang interest, however, are the rap / hip-hop terms "perpetrator / perpetrate" meaning "pretender, poseur" and "to pretend to be what one is not."  Pamela Munro's students at UCLA provided the earliest citations in 1988-89.  "Perp" abbreviates both noun and verb.

JL



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