[lit-ideas] Re: Here's a new spin on preventative medicine

A commenter comments, a commentator goes on and on about football... 
IMO

Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Wager" <john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 4:33 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Here's a new spin on preventative medicine
I'm stopped cold when I'm writing and I try to call someone a commenter. Commentator? Commenter? One who commentates? One who comments? Ahhah, let's forget the whole thing! 


Robert Paul wrote:
I'd always thought that 'preventative' was one of those barbarisms, like 'orientate,' that somehow crept into the language while I was doing research on molluscs in Greenland, but apparently there's a difference. 

'The doctor gave him two aspirin as a preventative.'

(The two aspirin are specific things.)

'In our clinic we emphasize preventive medicine.'

('Medicine' is non-specific abstraction.)
'Orientate,' seems to be derived from 'orientation,' just as 'interpretate' is a rebarbative ('one who shaves or is shaved more than once') folk extraction from 'interpretation.' 



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