ToTN

[sagehen]

>>  >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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W stands for >:<  War ____Waste___Wiretaps____Witchhunts  >:<
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