One of my colleagues asked an astute question this week. Commenting on all the things for sale online and in physical stores that are “pre-loved”, she wondered: “Does this mean that all these things were loved before, but are no longer loved?”
Not too long ago, clothing, cars and other items that used to belong to other people were described as “secondhand”. That word no longer exists in the marketplace lexicon. Now everything is “pre-loved”.
As a pedant, it seems necessary here to explore the paradoxical nature of the prefix “pre”, which can have entirely opposite meanings.
“Pre-loved” is mostly understood to be an item adored by whomever it previously belonged to. But it could also mean an item that has not yet been loved, and is teetering on a precipice of premonition that it might in the near future receive the love for which it longs.
“Prefix” incidentally, might describe something that has already been repaired, or something broken that awaits fixing.
“Pre” is a pesky little tyke. For the purposes of this investigation I pulled out my old, tattered and visibly pre-loved copy of Roget’s thesaurus. In the index alone, there are five pages of small type telling one where to find synonyms for words beginning with “pre”.
Sometimes these are simple. A prenuptial agreement is obviously a document signed by sensible couples before getting married. Others are less clear.
Predisposed, for instance, might mean that you are pre-programmed to act in a certain way, or it might mean that you have previously been thrown into some sort of a garbage disposal unit.
Premature presents the same problems. It could mean someone who is not yet grown up, but it could equally describe a person who was once mature and has now regressed into childhood.
Precautions, too, might be efforts undertaken to make sure bad things don’t happen, in other words, caution employed before action.
Precautions might also, however, refer to the cautionary notes one was given, to no avail, before doing something dangerous and/or idiotic.
Prediction could be the gargles and gestures made by infants in a state of pre-language and speech, or a prescient vision of the future
Prediction could be the gargles and gestures made by infants in a state of pre-language and speech, or a prescient vision of the future.
Present, which already has a whole lot of meanings (gift; announce; hand over; be in the moment, etc) also has the potential to mean a gift or other parcel that was previously sent, or a gift or other parcel that has yet to be sent.
Prepaid usually means paid before, but if you employ the rule of pesky prefixes, it could also mean as yet unpaid.
A preview of a film or draft parliamentary bill is commonly held to be pre sight of such a thing, as in seeing it before anyone else does. Yet again, if we are adhering to the pre-loved complexity of prefixes, it could be taken as a vision not yet seen by anyone.
And then there is prevent, which most of us understand to mean whatever you do to stop something happening before it happens.
If you indulge my admittedly absurd topsy-turvy theory, however, prevent could describe a factory or other edifice that does not yet have any doors, windows, gaps in the roof or air-conditioning. And prepared would be an apple with its skin still on.
There are of course many words with which one cannot play this silly game, because the part that comes after “pre” is not a recognised word.
Both president and premier fall into this category, unless we mix English and Afrikaans and interpret “premier” as someone about to be turned into an ant.
Trusty Roget groups premiers and presidents under the same umbrella. Included as synonyms for “manager” are president, prime minister, premier and primus inter pares, which has nothing to do with the person best placed to manage the gas cooker during load-shedding, but is a Latin phrase meaning “first among equals”.
Legal writer John Markley has an interesting observation about the history of this phrase: “In the ancient Roman Republic, the primus inter pares of the Senate held the respect of his peers and a reputation for integrity and public service ... Later, the title was adopted by the first Roman emperor, Augustus, in order to maintain the legal fiction that he was merely the foremost citizen of a still-intact republic and not an autocrat.”
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