. . . to get the extra syllable out of the word “preventative.”
My contention is that if we don’t say “preventate” or “preventation,” we have no business saying “preventative.”
What is it about those extra syllables that makes people feel well padded against the rapiers of rivals and the cold winds of humble reality? Is using such a pomped-up word driven by the same sort of impulse as buying cheap stainless steel tableware tricked out to look like an 18th-century aristocrat’s silver, or framing a mail-order doctorate? Or is it that “preventive” just doesn’t sound thick enough to be . . . protectative?
What other words can you think of that this is done to?
The Compulsive Copyeditor 
