Should we have a pre- and post- pair of Words of the Day at a Toastmasters club meeting?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compound words in English are curiously unsymmetrical. We might expect the prefixes pre- and post- to describe before and after, but that’s not how they always work. On April 20, 2018 I blogged about Playing with words: PRO or CON? In that post I noted that club meeting for Toastmasters International optionally call for the Grammarian to introduce a Word of the Week (or Day). We might also consider having a pair of words. Also, on January 10, 2024 I blogged about Should we have a con- and pro- pair of Words of the Day at a Toastmasters club meeting.

 

And On February 12, 2021 I blogged about Playing with words: PRE- or POST-? Today I’m revisiting those prefixes PRE- and POST-.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, now I found 14 pairs of words with both pre- and post- as their prefixes (rather than the previous two).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, I found 26 pairs where only the word beginning with pre- is real (rather than ten). You can be precise, but it’s too late to be postcise. And you can prefer something, but you cannot postfer it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I found seven pairs where only the word beginning with post- is real (rather than five). You can postpone something, but it’s too early to prepone it.