On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 02:01:00AM +0100, Helen Larson wrote:
> Predate doesn't have a hyphen, 'tis a perfectly good word in the
> sense of antedate. Ask the Oxford. Predate as in "Sharks predate
> on small fish" is not a good word and gets used by people who think
> it's derived from the words "predator" or "predation". Possibly
> the same people who use "impact" as a verb. Sharks prey upon small
> fish. Milk bottles do not prey upon great tits. Will now remove
> my editorial nitpicker's hat and try to remember that the English
> language is evolving, even if I don't like it.
The OED has both senses of predate and indicates the second sense is
thought to have formed from predation. If you search for "predate tit"
in google scholar one of the first hits is a 1970 Journal of Zoology paper
by the famous ecologist John Krebs. When the very eminent Baron Krebs of
Oxford Uni has been using the word for 40+ years in formal publications,
its use should be accepted in casual email.
I'd agree this sense of predate is an unattractive & unnecessary
neologism but there is a certain hypocrisy to complain that its "not
a good word" and then use "nitpicker" which seems to be a more recent
neologism, appearing in the 1950s.
Andrew
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