(awaiting word from across the Pond....)

I'm across the other Pond, but "orientate" jars on me as well. My Chambers makes no reference to any particular variant being responsible for "orientate", but it sounds to me like a back-formation from "orientation" more than an example of the British fondness for extra syllables. My grandparents were sticklers for British pronunciation (trait=tray, mall=mell), and they would never let me get away with "orientate." Interestingly, Merriam-Webster's site tells us that "orientate" first surfaced in 1849, and dictionary,.com has some interesting specimens of its use. Just my $0.02