I really like E, I think she’s intelligent, witty, and cute, and we work well together. Sure, her name’s a single letter, and a vowel at that, but I can adjust; I’m a pretty adaptable guy. The problem is with my good buddy, Tate, who likes her too. I think she is having trouble deciding. Well, que sera sera. Only time will tell if it’s going to be E and me Or E and Tate 
That was for you Jack.
I aint even gonna try for Klaatu…
Two men sitting at a bar:
First man: “Who was that lady I saw you with last night?”
Second man: “That was no lady, ‘Klaatu barada nicto’.”
???
Don’t ask me, I couldn’t think of anything either.
Ok here goes:
I come from a very distant land where various types of fruit are held in high regard. Everyone loves apples and bananas, pears and plums, etc etc. Almost all types of fruit are very much appreciated and are thought to be gifts from the gods, and perhaps they are.
But about 2 months, we noticed people started getting very sick after eating certain peach-like fruits, particularly from the nectarines. It was advised to the lord of the land, Klaa, to make all nectarines illegal, (to, in essence, barr them from the people) but for Klaatu barada nicto rines, he would have to kill ada nicto rine trees.
Ok. You have me all curious now. Apparently the people who use the word don’t make it a word, since they’re obviously misusing it in the first place. The dictionary isn’t an authority, according to the quote above.
Who decides what a word is? You?
If language didn’t evolve, then we’d all still be speaking like they did in Shakespeare’s time. No, earlier. Like Canterbury Tales. No, wait, still earlier. Latin. No… I guess we’d all be grunting.
Good one, Moe.
<whipered> by the way, I think everyone else is ignoring us.
Anyway, if it wasn’t for orientate, we wouldn’t have Mrs Fields cookies. (See Poundstone’s Bigger Secrets)
Your brain-in-a-jar,
Myron
Irregardless of whether orientate is a word, I think I read it in something at the liberry last Febuary.
OXFORD illus Dict: “orientate”/ …v.tr. & intr. =orient, n.
When Oxford speaks, it is a word. Sorry.
I have been to orientation classes, conducted by people who were sure they were orientating me and I left feeling pretty well orientated.
Not likely! You can’t hear the groans?
People I work with say orientate, as in “who’s going to orientate the new hires?” Since I’m too chickenshit to quibble, I just use “orient” whenever possible, hoping they’ll catch on. These guys are always asking me how to spell something (not “something”, they know how to spell that). And they ask me for definitions before checking the dictionary. So if I’m the resident word usage guru, why don’t they listen?
And what’s up with “effectivity”? What’s wrong with “effective”? (And excuse me if I’m not placing the quotes correctly; punctuation’s not my strong suit.)
Our IT guys say it all the time. “The effectivity date for the AS400 upgrade is July 31.” Never mind that we’ll be lucky to have it operational by September. If they’re gonna lie to us, they should at least use real words.
I have one hideous “word” for you: “signage.” OH, the pain!
Actually, I do indeed believe that the people who use the word make it a word. I never said otherwise.
OK, OK, language is descriptive rather than prescriptive. It’s a word because people use it. Dictionaries don’t make grammar rules, they describe them. So “Orientate” IS a word.
That being said.
It’s a stupid word. I don’t like it. It’s inefficient and inelegant and marks its speaker as an ignoramus in my eyes.
Yes, language can and does evolve. Orientate is proof positive that it can devolve as well.
More likely, to French’fry it.
(And is no one else amused by the whole concept of orienting (i.e., point east) a map by identifying where north is?)