Jeez, don't get me started! [How's that!??]

Well, here's one linguistic oddity which is becoming less odd, unfortunately. The stuffing of extraneous syllables into words by people who either want to demonstrate how literate they are (which has the opposite effect) or by those who just don't know any better (the latter, at least, are forgivable on that account, having probably been misled by listening to the former). Two examples:

"Orientated" for the correct "oriented," which means figuring out where you are and which way you're pointing, and "preventative" for preventive, as in "preventive medicine."

When you look up the extra-syllable version in almost any dictionary, it refers you to the shorter word. There are lots of these out there and they seem to be proliferiferatatatinginging!

Don Firth