Back Formations

Today we are discussing back formations—not spinal abnormalities, but grammatical abnormalities. Verbal “back formations” are neologisms* derived from other, existing words. They are generally awkward, jingoistic, and redundant.

Verbs from Nouns from Verbs

Back formations are (usually) verbs that were formed from nouns that were in turn formed from other verbs. The situation is a bit like that old country and Western song: 

I was lookin’ back to see

If you were lookin’ back to see

If I was lookin’ back to see 

If you were lookin’ back at me. 

Back formations are redundant and unnecessarily complex.

Orient/Orientation/Orientate

“To orient” is a verb upon which the noun “orientation” has been built. So far, so good. But, at some point, some talk-show host or PowerPoint-wielding marketing executive decided to create a new verb based on the noun “orientation,” and came up with “orientate.” Since “orientate,” presumably, means “orient,” and “orient” is a shorter, simpler word than “orientate,” why do we need a new, more complex way of saying the same thing?

Administer/Administration/Administrate

“Administrate” is a back formation similar to “orientate.” The original verb is “administer,” and the noun “administration” was created from that verb. Why then would anyone choose to create the linguistic rube-goldberg “administrate,” when “administer” already exists and is more direct?

Some other annoying and frequently used back formations are the verbs “to commentate,” taken from “commentator”; “to emote,” taken from “emotion,” and “to spectate,” taken from “spectator.”

Back formations, unfortunately, are legion, but should be plucked out by their roots before they spawn even further-back back formations: 

Administer, administration, administrate . . .

administrationate? 

Orient, orientation, orientate . . .

orientationate?

It’s easy to see how silly this can get!

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*“Neologisms” are newly created words.

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BULLETIN BOARD

To M.B.:

Sorry, but the word “entitled” has nothing to do with books or titles. “Entitled” means “deserving.” (Examples: The book was titled War and Peace. The worker was entitled to his wages.)

To K.C.:

Your questions are more about corporate branding than about grammar, but Ms. Picky will respond, nevertheless.

“Citicorp,” as in the “Citicorp Building” in New York, derives its “corp” from the English word “corporation” (often abbreviated as “corp.”), not from the French word “corps” (which is not an abbreviation). For that reason, it should be pronounced SIT-ee-corp, with a hard p sound at the end, not SIT-ee-core.

“Ralph Lauren,” like the Citicorp Building, is also American. (By now, everyone knows that he was born in the Bronx, as Ralph Lipschitz.) His nationality is not in doubt; in fact, he is known for his emblematically American style, and his name is pronounced the American way: LORE-en, not lore-EN.

(Yves St. Laurent, however, is French and therefore entitled to have his name pronounced the French way, lore-ANH.)

This blog is read in in Canada, China, Croatia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Russia, Slovenia, the U.K., the U.S., and Vietnam, but not in the Citicorp Building.