CurvedSpace Forums: Why "orientate? - CurvedSpace Forums

I've noticed this 'word' becoming more and more common. What happened to the verb (to) orient? "I oriented the tent to face north" vs. "I orientated the tent to face north." Clearly it makes sense to use the former, it's easier to say and just sounds better.

For evidence of how crazy this is, how many times have you heard these words use this way?:

annexate (annex),
augmentate (augment),
cementate (cement),
pigmentate (pigment),
documentate (document),
experimentate (experiment),
fermentate (ferment),
fragmentate (freagment),
implementate (implement),
representate (represent),
presentate (present),
segmentate (segment),
supplementate (supplement). . .

I try not to be too crazy about grammar, but this one grates on my nerves. So why, people (I'm looking particularly at you, newscasters. . . you also seem to have forgotten the past tense of "plead"), do we have to hear this abomination of a word?

(What's scaring me now is only "supplementate" in the list above is being flagged by the spell checker. . . .)

All of those, except for 'orientate' are flagged by my spell checker

I'm guessing orientate is based on orientation. I don't know why the news would do this (see also: harassment), but the public is probably doing it because the news is. I've never really paid much attention to it.

Oh, I know it is . That's why I included that list. All of those other words have the same form as orient/orientation, and nobody uses -those- that way.

Interesting...I haven't noticed it used much. Perhaps it's regional.

I don't know. I haven't really paid attention to which newscasters use it (local or national), but I have also seen it several times in writing, both fiction and non-fiction.