Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-miles!chabot From: chabot@miles.DEC (L. S. Chabot) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Poor English (here too) Message-ID: <987@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Thu, 7-Mar-85 09:08:16 EST Article-I.D.: decwrl.987 Posted: Thu Mar 7 09:08:16 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 9-Mar-85 11:09:50 EST Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: DEC Engineering Network Lines: 19 Robert Herndon == > > Why is it that the "word" ORIENTATE seems so popular in computer circles? > The verb is ORIENT!! Yes, "orient" is a verb, and so is "orientate" (see The American Heritage Dictionary: it means "to orient"). I admit, I used to think "orientate" pretty annoying too. Until I found an occasion in which it was most appropriately used: in one of the Judge Dee mystery novels by van Gulik, Judge Dee and a distinguished elder Chinese gentlemen with whom he is conversing are described as "orientating" themselves about something; clearly, as writer Pamela C. Dean has agreed with me, "orienting" themselves would be redundant, since, well, they already are oriental. L S Chabot UUCP: ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot ARPA: ...chabot%amber.DEC@decwrl.ARPA USFail: DEC, LMO4/H4, 150 Locke Drive, Marlborough, MA 01752