"Administrate" vs. "Administer"

Matthew Hunt mph at astro.caltech.edu
Mon May 19 21:14:55 UTC 2003


On Mon, May 19, 2003 at 09:52:08PM +0100, Ceri Davies wrote:

> While technically this is correct, I think that "administering the spooler"
> reads better; any objections to my changing it?

I strongly prefer "administer," and generally eschew the gratuitous
longification of words.

(I'd always assumed that "administrate" was a neologism, but the OED lists
usages in this sense since 1639.  Still, it always sounds clumsy to me.)

-- 
Matthew Hunt <mph at astro.caltech.edu> * Science rules.
http://www.pobox.com/~mph/           *



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