| 词组 | preventative, preventive |
| 释义 | preventative, preventive The critics have panned preventative for over a century, preferring its shorter synonym preventive in spite of the fact that both words have been around for over 300 years and both have had regular use by reputable writers. Here is the basic premise behind the objections: if two similar adjectives are derived from the same verb, then one of them must be in some way inferior to the other, and the likely culprit is the longer one. But the only real difference in status between these two words is that preventative is much less common than preventive. If you decide you like the sound of that extra syllable and are willing to brave possible criticism for it, you may take heart from the example set by these writers: • ... send a preventative Medicine —Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, 1722 (OED) • Wearing flannel next the skin is the best cure for, and preventative of the Rheumatism I ever tried — George Washington, Writings, 1793 (OED) • The initiative for any preventative measures — Henry A. Wallace, Commonweal, 11 Aug. 1944 • ... a preventative-maintenance program —Oran I. Brown, Book Production Industry, September 1964 • Fear is not a preventative of war —Frederic Wer-tham, Johns Hopkins Mag., Summer 1971 • ... which may or may not be particularly instructive and most certainly not preventative —Michael Stu-grin, Chaucer Rev., Fall 1980 You may wonder how preventative came to be objected to. The earliest attack is in Bache 1869; he said that there was no such word. Bache's book was one of those used by Ayres 1881, who also criticized preventative. From Ayres it went to Vizetelly 1906, Bierce 1909, MacCracken & Sandison 1917, and Lurie 1927. Fowler 1926 picked it up too, and so it has gone right down to the 1980s. A couple of commentators—Evans 1962 and Watt 1967—realize that preventative is acceptable. Probably none of the recent objectors realizes that his opinion goes back to Bache 1869. But the moderns do not claim that preventative is nonexistent anymore; nowadays they say it is wrong because it is "irregularly formed." That is not so, of course. It is formed in just the same way as authoritative, quantitative, normative, talkative, and other words to which no one objects. |
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