Utilizing away

[Karen Schneider]

And don't forget "orientate," which is what happens to the word "orient" when
folks reason backwards from the word "orientation." There's actually a
perverse logic to this, just as "conversate" makes sense if you start with the
word "conversation." Again, people employing these non-words are striving for
a formal tone. Explain to me, someone, why "utilize" irritates me but
"orientate" and "conversate" just make me smile.

Karen G. Schneider Internet schn...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu

"I then seized the pistols; he said not a word"--Fanny Burney, _Evelina_

--
Karen G. Schneider Internet schn...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu

"I then seized the pistols; he said not a word"--Fanny Burney, _Evelina_

[Peter Moylan]

In article <BsBD...@news.cso.uiuc.edu>,
schn...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Karen Schneider) writes:

> Explain to me, someone, why "utilize" irritates me but
> "orientate" and "conversate" just make me smile.

Easy: "utilize" is heavily used by the sort of people who like making
long pompous statements with essentially zero semantic content.
For whatever reason, those people haven't yet picked up on
"orientate" or "conversate". (I've never heard the latter; as for
"orientate", it seems to appear mostly as an innocent slip rather
than as a deliberate attempt to obfuscate. (Or should that be obfusc?))

Words don't irritate people; people irritate people.

Peter.
(P.S. I'm not a pro-gun fanatic, just a plagiarist.)

[David Wald]

In article <1992Aug4...@wombat.newcastle.edu.au> ee...@wombat.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan) writes:
>"orientate" or "conversate". (I've never heard the latter; as for
>"orientate", it seems to appear mostly as an innocent slip rather
>than as a deliberate attempt to obfuscate. (Or should that be
>obfusc?))

"obfuscatize"

-David
--
============================================================================
David Wald wa...@theory.lcs.mit.edu
"Blessed are the peacocks, for they shall be called sonship of God"
-- Matt 5:9, from a faulty QuickVerse 2.0
============================================================================

[Dennis Baron]

In article <1992Aug4.1...@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> wa...@theory.lcs.mit.edu (David Wald) writes:
>From: wa...@theory.lcs.mit.edu (David Wald)
>Subject: Re: Utilizing away
>Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1992 13:16:56 GMT

orientate is of course normal British English; orient is the form most
often found in the US. Orientate therefore counts as a Briticism
(or if you will, Britishism). The OED in its newest incarnations
recognizes Americanisms, Canadianisms, Austral and NZealand English,
but not Briticisms. John Algeo is currently at work on a dictionary
of Briticisms.

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