Orienting vs. Orientating?

Yes, it IS a “British thing. ‘Orientating’ is the typical British usage, vs. American “orienting”. And there is NOT a difference in meaning.

Why two different forms? The main reason is that there more than one way to borrow a word, and different ways may be used by different people, at different times or through different channels. This might result in two separate borrowings of the same word with the SAME meaning, or two different forms that end up developing their own distinct meanings.

This has happened a number of times with Latin words. One common result is that ONE of the forms eventually takes over as “THE” official form, and others (even older ones that might once have dominated) become obsolete. Another possible result is that different DIALECTS of the language use (or at least prefer) different forms.

In this case, the British apparently derived “orientate” by creating a “back-formation” from the noun form “orientation”. On the other hand, American English took the verb form more DIRECTLY (not from the noun form), so ended up with just the ‘root’ — “orient”.

Is Orientate A Word

Orientating

I’m too lazy to look this up but I would be shocked if “disorientating was a word’. I know for a fact that disorienting is a word and means exactly what you would think. The only person who says disorientating is bear grylls on Man Vs. Wild.

You ask a good question. ‘Orientating’ wasn’t always a word in conventional language. Today, however, you should be able to find it in any dictionary.

‘Orienting’ is my choice because it’s easier to understand. However, ‘orientating’ is a word. In fact, in the three dictionaries I checked, one explanation of the meaning was written as follows: ‘to orient’. They virtually mean the same thing, obviously.