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June 02, 2006

You say "Orientated", I say "Oriented"

Every time I hear someone say "orientated" I feel a little twinge of pain. Until today, when I decided to look it up (www.dictionary.com), I was under the impression that orientated was not a word. Apparently, it is. It means the same thing as oriented, which is the real word.

I wasn't impressed when I saw that, but apparently, if you can get any word mentioned in the media often enough, it gets added to a dictionary.

Of course, the word orientated seems to be growing in popularity. I wonder when map and compass users will be going out for orientateering races.

So, why don't I like the word "orientated"? It's like saying "utilized" when "used" will do.

"I utilized my hand to smack myself in the head and suddenly found myself disorientated."

5 comments:

Speaka said...

I find orientated disorienting but I sometime utilise utilise.

Jackie S. Quire said...

I HATE that freaking word. And as a member of the aforementioned media, you have my word that I will NEVER EVER USE IT.

That is all.

Bud Watson-Firth said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Meandering Michael said...

Oh, thank you, Jackie! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Meandering Michael said...

Oh, thank you, Jackie! Thank you, thank you, thank you!