Hi,

Don’t know whether this annoys anyone else, probably not…

I often see/hear the verb ‘administrate’ used, in conjunction with ‘administrator’ - surely the correct term would be ‘I am an administrator - therefore I administer...rather than ‘therefore I administrate’.

Perhaps administrate has developed into the accepted form but it doesn’t sound right to me…

Regards

JB

While I’m on it…here’s another one that persistently bugs me…incorrect use of enquiries/inquiries…

As I understand it an ‘enquiry’ is a query/question - An inquiry is an [official] investigation - so generally one wouldn’t ‘inquire’ about a concern, one would ‘enquire’...comments anyone?

Rather than look it up, what about “magistrate” then, your magister ?

And yes, an inquisitor asks hard questions the hard way, while an equerry merely tends to the horses.

The verb is “administer.” “Administrate” is like “vitaminize.” It very likely to be a proper word at some point, but it’s essenially just a root world with the wrong ending added because of its similarity to other words ending in -ate. I imagine that “chlorinate” and “caffeinate” came in usage the same way.

Inquire and enquire are both legitimate, as are inquiry and enquiry. Take your pick, altough my feeling is that the “i” words are more common.

Interestingly, “comment” and “commentate” are both legitimate verbs with different meanings.

To comment = to make one or more individual comments.  (Related nouns = comment, commenter.)
To commentate = to give a running commentary.  (Related nouns = commentary, commentator.)

“One member of the broadcasting team commentated on the match; the other commented on points of interest during the breaks in play.”

According to the dictionary, “administrate” is older than ““commentate” by 150 years or so, but I’m still no fan of “ate” and “ize” to form funky sounding verbs like “masculinize” or “feminize.”
First thing you know, we’ll be chocolatating the tops or our ice cream cones and dye-izing our hair.

Or “chocalatizing our ice cream?
This language is getting far too complicated with the tech age and in the politically correct point of view.
I heard one the other day:  “The uncomfortability bothered me”.  How about discomfort?
Let’s Uncomplicate.

LukeJavan8 - 19 May 2009 09:17 AM

Or “chocalatizing our ice cream?
This language is getting far too complicated with the tech age and in the politically correct point of view.
I heard one the other day:  “The uncomfortability bothered me”.  How about discomfort?
Let’s Uncomplicate.

KISS : keep it simple, stupid.