Re: briskets etc.
Re: briskets etc.
- Subject: Re: briskets etc.
- From: Ric Phillips <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 12:32:58 +1000
>
How about "commentators"? (Though I think Briskets have the same
>
panache as Osaxen...)
Yech! What an ugly word - right up there with computators, and orientators.
Its the comments themselves that do the commenting (or more accurately the
programmer) - not the brackets that mark them as such.
The 'at' infix is for words where the 'ion' ending renders them awkward to
pronounce, or phonetically too removed from their root. Ie, compute ->
compution!? -> so computation & orient -> orientation ! not oriention.
But one is not justified in going backwards from orientation to 'orientate'!
When deriving the noun from the verb - commentator - it's a line-ball
between using the 'at' and 'not' using it. Compute is the verb, so one who
computes is a computer not a computater. Apply the same rule to the verb
comment should give commentor - but as this will shift the phonetic emphasis
to co-MENT-or, and make the noun sound as if it was derived from 'mentor',
commentator is acceptable. What is really nauseating is here constant
reference to commentators 'commentating' [barf!!!].
It's inevitable I know - commentating has taken hold and along with its
inbred cousins (eg., conferencing) we will never be free of this ugly,
misshapen reminder of our linguistic promiscuity. But let's not encourage
it, lest we find ourselves having one day to 'refutate our opponents',
'datate our sweethearts', 'contemplatate the mysteries of existence', and
'inflatate our children's party balloons.'!
Ric Phillips
Faculty Web Coordinator
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Latrobe University
Room HU3 324
Phone: 9479 2792
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