ToTN

[Jonathan Lighter]

I imagine you've already checked out the 210,000 Googlits for "conversate."  Fortunately some of them are Italian.

  For some reason (probably dearth of cites), it's not in HDAS.  But that isn't so bad because it isn't in OED either.

  The earliest ex. I've seen (1992 on Usenet: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/msg/ade253c308a5c70c )
  calls it a "non-word."

  By the time somebody calls something a "non-word" in writing, it's usually been around for a good number of years.

  JL



Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: ToTN
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you had to deal with "conversate," yet, Jon? When i first heard
it, I thought that it was hip, jokey, pswaydo-learned slang. But, now,
I've heard it from people of every race, etc., who clearly believe
that "conversate" is neither new nor a joke. It's simply the verb from
which "conversation" is derived, if they think about it at all.

-Wilson

On 7/1/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: ToTN
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I don't get "orientate." Brits do, though.
>
> JL
>
> sagehen wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: sagehen
> Subject: Re: ToTN
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >> >not exactly out of nowhere, since purists have been alternately
> >>>complaining for centuries (documented in Dennis Baron's book, if
> >>>memory serves) about lazy speakers who persist in lopping the
> >>>beginnings and ends of helpless words (like Wilson's people,
> >>>complaining about "till" or "bus") or about idle speakers who add
> >>>unnecessary, redundant, and superfluous syllables to perfectly good
> >>>words (the ones who complain about "unto" and "until"). Of course,
> >>>both sects have typically have operated in blithe ignorance of the
> >>>actual histories of the words involved.
> >>>
> >>>LH
> >>~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >>Um. Does this mean I *shouldn't* write to my local npr station to ask their
> >>announcers/news reporters to notice that "preventive" does not have four
> >>syllables?
> >>AM
> >>
> >Well, they'd probably note (at least I would if I were they) that
> >while "preventive" does indeed have just three syllables,
> >"preventative" has four.
> >
> >LH
> ~~~~~~~~~~~
> Yeah, sure. But why? Preventate ??! Preventation?!? I see that OED
> (against my expectation) has an entry for "preventative," but I don't get
> it.
> AM
>
>
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