Also, Coils of pipe may be positioned in an “eye to the side” or “eye to the sky” orientation . When the flexible pipe is coiled and is disposed with its interior channel facing upwards, such that the coil is in a horizontal orientation , then the coils of pipe are referred to as being in an “eye to the sky” orientation . When did the main meaning of the word 'gay' shift from happy to homosexual? How did the meaning evolve, if there is a relation between the two? People say orientated because they hear the word orientation and think that's the verb made from it. It's called a "back-formation". (See Why are "colleagues" becoming "work colleagues"?). Orientated is accepted as an alternate by most dictionaries I've seen. To orient something comes from the medieval practice of building cathedrals so that the apse, the part of the building that contained the altar, would be on the eastern side (hence orient). (I suppose if they screwed up and got it the ... Back-to-front suggests a single item that is the wrong way around or has been reversed, like a shirt with the buttons at the back, or holding a map up the wrong way. Back-to-back suggests two things touching each other, and unlike in back-to-back housing, the orientation doesn't necessarily matter, especially for abstract terms like agreements and arrangements (in this context).
