Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 June 1

= June 1 =

Popularity of verbates
Per my knowledge, "orientate" and "administrate" are the most popular verbates. Does Wikipedia have any article talking about the popularity of verbates by some people?? (No, this doesn't mean simply any verb that ends in -ate; I want you to figure out yourself what it means.) Georgia guy (talk) 23:23, 1 June 2016 (UTC)
 * No. μηδείς (talk) 01:39, 2 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Despite your wish for us to figure out ourselves what it means, you also might wish to clarify: are the verbs listed in wikt:Category:English words suffixed with -ate the ones you mean? (Note that it does not simply list "any verb that ends in -ate": "hate" and "mate" are not on in that category, for example. Unfortunately it lists adjectives and nouns too, though. See also wikt:-ate, number 7). ---Sluzzelin talk  01:57, 2 June 2016 (UTC)


 * According to this, "verbate" means "to reproduce word for word" - presumably, then, a back-formation from "verbatim". If that's not what the OP means, then he's got some 'splainin' to do. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 03:50, 2 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I assume this means adding an unnecessary -ate ending (to orient and to administer being perfectly good verbs with exactly the same meanings as their extended forms). However, that does not seem to be a grammatically correct use of the word "verbate" which does mean to repeat something word for word (verbatim), and does not seem to be recorded anywhere with this new meaning. I can't immediately think of other examples. 86.191.126.192 (talk) 08:29, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I pretty sure that, for those neologists, the thinking is not take administer, and add -ate, but instead, it is take administration, and try to make a verb out of it. And they follow the pattern that they are familiar with of ordination-ordinate, nomination-nominate, acceleration-accelerate etc. etc. --Lgriot (talk) 12:00, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

Now, for clarification, what 86.191.126.192 assumes it means is on the right track; it means put "-ate" verbs into existence from -ation nouns that originally came from verbs without -ate. But the key when it comes to my use of "verbate" is that I find it surprising that there's no widely used special name for this kind of verb. Georgia guy (talk) 13:27, 2 June 2016 (UTC)


 * No, the related verb form to "ordination" is "ordain".  The back - formation is not present in a word like "commentate" which implies a string of "comments" (which can be used as either a noun or a verb) for which the related noun is "commentary". 151.224.162.114 (talk) 14:24, 2 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Well, the Wiktionary entry for 'ordinate' is clearly indicating that ordain is not the only verb for describing the act of ordination.


 * Verb
 * ordinate ‎(third-person singular simple present ordinates, present participle ordinating, simple past and past participle ordinated)
 * 1.(transitive) to ordain a priest, or consecrate a bishop
 * --Lgriot (talk) 12:55, 3 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I remain appalled that "coronate" is considered an acceptable variant of "crown" (v.). Some people just can't seem to pronunciate their words good.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:02, 2 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I suspect that this is yet another case where English has two words for the same thing, one derived from French and one from Latin.  See fr:Constitutions religieuses. 151.224.163.159 (talk) 13:51, 3 June 2016 (UTC)
 * French itself is derived from Latin. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:11, 3 June 2016 (UTC)