gramer cops and other interesed parties . a question if i may?

[snot]

10. Fwiw,

my personal pet peeve is using preventative for preventive, orientate for orient, etc. – i.e., adding or substituting a syllable in order to turn the noun form of a verb back into a longer (and to me, more officious-sounding) form of the same verb (orient –> orientation –> orientate; prevent –> prevention –> preventative).

So "he took preventive measures" becomes "he took preventative measures," and
"she glanced at the map to orient herself" becomes "she glanced at the map to orientate herself."