| 词组 | perpetrate, perpetuate |
| 释义 | perpetrate, perpetuate Many handbooks on usage either state or imply that these two familiar words are frequently or occasionally confused, but actual examples of mistaken use are in extremely short supply. The error warned against is the use of perpetrate, "to commit (as a crime)," in place of perpetuate, "to cause to continue or to last." Copperud 1964 quotes a clear-cut instance of perpetrator used for perpetuator, and Kings-ley Amis, in Michaels and Ricks 1980, quotes a news report in which perpetuate is obviously the word wanted, but perpetrate is the word used. We have no other hard evidence. Flesch 1964 quotes a passage in which perpetrate is used in a somewhat unusual way, but it is not clearly a mistake for perpetuate, and Flesch does not call it one. This dearth of evidence suggests several possible conclusions: (1) the confusion described by the commentators does not really exist, and the few mistakes they have found are actually nothing more than typographical errors; (2) the confusion exists but is far less common than the commentators think it is; or (3) the confusion exists and is quite common, but we have somehow managed to overlook it. Any of those conclusions may be valid, but we are inclined to give both the commentators and ourselves something of a break by favoring the second. |
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