"the religious rite"

[Jonathan Lighter]

In my limited experience, British eggheads seem actually to prefer "orientate."

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: "the religious rite"
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Regarding another construction in the quoted sentence: "Orientate" is very common--more so than "conversate," I'd say. I have often wondered whether universities in Asia have occidentation for their entering freshmen . . . .

Here's one of my least favorite back-formations: Each faculty member in my department is assigned to be the "mentor" for a designated handful of undergraduates, who are referred to (by departmental administrators) as the faculty member's "mentees"--as if there exists a verb "to ment."

--Charlie
_____________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:44:48 -0700
>From: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
>Subject: "the religious rite"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>
>a student passed the following on to me, written by a (gay) friend of his:
>
>... well I get enough [flak] from the religious rite already about not being able to orientate myself correctly...
>

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