Do you hate ‘orientate’?

Add comment May 13th, 2008

The word “orient” is rooted in the concept of where the sun rises.

As a verb, it retains the meaning “to arrange with reference to the east.” It also can be “to set in agreement with the points of a compass,” a skill useful in the sport of “orienteering.”

“Orient” also has acquired the more general meanings of “adjust or adapt to,” “acquaint with” and “correct.”

So why do we need to add a syllable to create “orientate,” a word that covers exactly the same ground? For the answer, we would have to travel back to the mid-19th century, when it first appeared, in England, where they still use it much more often than Americans do. And that trip would be most disorienting.

“Orientation” is obviously a useful noun, but “orientate” as a verb is one of the few words I really don’t care for.

One candidate’s Wright of spring

1 comment May 8th, 2008

Many people not named Obama have been having fun with the Rev. Wright episode, including wordplay with the name “Wright” (see shameless example above).

What I haven’t seen, and I don’t see everything, is any comment on his first name, Jeremiah, which also was the name of a Hebrew prophet.

From Jeremiah’s lamentations in the Bible, his name can be applied to any “person pessimistic about the future,” and the noun “jeremiad” is “a long lamentation or complaint.”

But, hey, what’s in a name?