While I'm not interested enough at this point to do the research myself, I wonder if any of you can enlighten me concerning this:
A friend loaned me a murder mystery by a British author in which the word "orientate" was used several times. I complained about this at the time. This morning I saw an episode of an old British televsion show called Waiting for God, which is about retirees living in a retirement home, and the "orientate" form was used there as well. Is this a distinctly British usage, or, if you're a linguist, is it something even more particular than that?
5 comments:
Here you go: orientate.
The concise oxford english dictionary entry for "orientate" can be found be following this URL:
http://tinyurl.com/fpmwk
So Wes's finding is both interesting and irritating, or should I say irating, without really answering my question, while Jim's finding is uninformative. What I really need is an entry from the actual OED giving its earliest appearances in literature. Maybe I can look it up next time I go to the public library. Interesting website, Wes. Next time I have some time to kill I'll have to see what other interesting words they've defined.
I'm glad I could help with your continued learnating.
I was trying to figure out how not to sound snipey with what I said before. I can't tell whether or not I succeeded.
The most interesting thing about the link Wes posted, I thought later, is the idea of causing something to become eastern. Orient-ate.
Post a Comment