preposition
/ˌprɛpəˈzɪʃən/noun, verb
Word showing a noun’s relation to another word
From Latin, ultimately Proto-Indo-European pre- (before) + Latin ponere (to put).
Lineage
pre-
ponere
The story
Picture a Roman grammarian physically placing one word in front of another: that is the scene frozen inside Latin praepositio, literally “a putting before.” The first half, prae, meant “before”; the second, ponere, meant “to put or place,” the same placing idea that eventually gave English position, positive, and proposition. Greek grammarians used a near-identical description, prothesis, “a setting before,” while Old English even tried the transparent loan-translation foresetnys. By the late 14th century, English writers had reshaped the Latin form into preposicioun and then preposition. The word’s family also wandered into social hierarchy: a provost was originally someone “placed before,” a chief or official in charge. So when a teacher says a preposition shows where something stands—under the table, beyond the hill, beside the door—the word itself is demonstrating its own lesson: it is a linguistic object placed before another.
Modern usage
An Urban Dictionary joking verb meaning to ask someone for sex using only words, illustrated with a choice between “atop” and “beneath.”
- Heard in
- internet humor
- See
- Urban Dictionary entry 1
Words from the same roots
pre- · Latin, ultimately Proto-Indo-European, ‘before; in front of’
Derivedprecede, predict, preclude, premise, prevent, preview
ponere · Latin, ‘to put, place, or set’
Derivedposition, positive, posit, opposition, composition, deposition, proposition
Sources
- Etymonlinepreposition, pre-, position, provost, about
- Urban Dictionarypreposition
- Wiktionarypreposition, pre-, position