Important notice from the GRAMMAR POLICE. Plz read. This means you.
Tsarina:
Quote from: rufio on 2009 July 01, 22:10:33
Well, as you can see from the etymology in Jordi's cite, "prepare" is not actually an English compound, but was borrowed wholesale from Latin, and English is not Latin, etc., etc. While "prepare" does (to me) mean that the glass was filled before I drank it, it can't be used to mean that it was filled much more than a minute beforehand, and in this case I wanted to say that it had been prepared a long time in advance. (Incidentally, if the "pre" in "prepare" were a standard English prefix, "prepared a long time in advance" would be redundant.)
Does that make more sense to you?
I understand your reasoning, however, I do not find it very logical.
The very foundation of communication is to have roughly the same concepts of what words mean. Having a word mean something else to you than it does to the rest of the world can lead to interesting misunderstandings.
I don't quite get how you make Jordi's post with etymology support your point. It looks more like it confirms the traditional meaning of 'prepare' - to produce before intended use.
You may use the word as you wish, but must then expect that people will question it and perhaps even laugh at you. And if using it in posts, expect to clarify what you really meant like now. IMO, just accepting the standard usage would be less of a hassle.
Rothchild:
Since this is the grammar thread, I'd like to ask for help. I have trouble knowing when to use effect and affect. Most of the times when affect is used, it seems effect could be used in it's place. Any grammar gods willing to help me out?
Tsarina:
I'm not a grammar god by any means, but this and this site explain the effect/affect difference nicely.
rufio:
Quote from: Jordi on 2009 July 01, 22:20:52
Ultima: last
Penult: first from last
Antepenult: second from last
Preantepenult: third from last
You're right - I fail at counting. :P
No, I take that back, actually. The penult is the second-to-last. "First-to-last" is the same as last. What the heck?
Quote
What's next? Postprenatepenult?
That sounds like it would be a synonym for antepenult, though. Maybe forepreantepenult? Are there any other languages that are classical enough to use in linguistics jargon? Interestingly, I actually did find a hit for "preantepenult" in a paper about Palestinian Arabic. I was surprised; I did not know anybody actually used it.
Tsarina - the usage is standard with people I normally talk to.
Marhis:
Hey it's fun; priorpreantepenult, propiorpreantepenult, priuspreantepenult...
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