“Oriented” vs. “orientated”

Question

I couldn't help but add an additional frame of reference.

Though I personally find the utterance of "orientated" to be a failed attempt at the proper word "oriented", the collective commentary is indeed food for though.

Commonality of the use of this incorrect word seems to be the explanation (justification?) for calling it an acceptable word. While this may drive crazy those that pride themselves on being moderately adept at identifying improper english, the reality is language evolves in this very way. Put another way, if an "incorrect" word is used commonly enough, by a large enough percentage of the population, and over a substantial enough period of time, it often becomes acceptable.

Common error is one of the reasons why multiple spellings for certain words, slang, and other verbal "anomalies" are added annually to the English dictionaries of the word.

Orientated is not an incorrect word, it is perfectly acceptable. If anything I would have thought it was the original, which has since been shortened to 'oriented'. — Mynamite, Apr 07 '14 at 18:50
This post is not a question, nor is it a duplicate of another question. It appears to be a comment on another question. — MetaEd, Apr 07 '14 at 21:03

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 07 '14 at 20:37

According to the OED, the first occurrence of the verb "to orient" is from 1728, of "to orientate" from 1848. Neither is particularly old, but both have been around for some time now. At the present time the former is more common in the US, the latter more common in the UK.

“Oriented” vs. “orientated”

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