A few days ago, some of us were having a conversation with Suchitra ma'am about our convocation and she mentioned that a student had emailed her saying that he was about to be 'convocated'. She said that she hadn't thought of the word before but that it had a lovely feel to it, as if someone was going to be beheaded. Sice then, she said, she was having visions of the convocation with a lot of decapitated heads lying all over the auditorium. I completely share her views on the matter.
The conversation then steered to the word 'prepone'. It was her father who brought it up saying that the MS Word editor gave it as an error and that was the first time he realized that the word did not exist, after confirming it with the dictionary. I had known for sometime now that there's no such word as prepone but did not know the reason. Suchitra ma'am ventured to explain it to us based on a conversation she had had with someone else. He had explained to her, as she did to us now that prepone would be a valid word if 'post' in postpone were a prefix so that 'pre'pone becomes its antonym. For that to happen, there has to be an independent word 'pone' with its own meaning (a synonym of schedule) that can take prefixes which alter its meaning.
Since pone clearly doesn't exist (as our flights are never poned at 2 pm and our doctor never pones an appointment), and there doesn't seem a possibility of it happening in the near future, prepone, though a very convenient word, is not a part of the Queen's English, or American English, for that matter. Use 'advance' if you are finicky, or simply prepone your usage of the word till it makes an entry into OED! :)
Edit: Just googled a bit and read through a few discussion thread on the topic. Most Indians think that prepone is a logical opposite of postpone. It certainly does appear that way, I must admit. While the Americans prefer to use 'move up', I came across a really interesting entry where a person claims that a more appropriate and logical antonym to postpone would be, wait for it, antepone, as opposed to prepone. I bow to this person. After this, there's nothing left to write.
Must go to blog: http://weirdbooks.blogspot.com/
The conversation then steered to the word 'prepone'. It was her father who brought it up saying that the MS Word editor gave it as an error and that was the first time he realized that the word did not exist, after confirming it with the dictionary. I had known for sometime now that there's no such word as prepone but did not know the reason. Suchitra ma'am ventured to explain it to us based on a conversation she had had with someone else. He had explained to her, as she did to us now that prepone would be a valid word if 'post' in postpone were a prefix so that 'pre'pone becomes its antonym. For that to happen, there has to be an independent word 'pone' with its own meaning (a synonym of schedule) that can take prefixes which alter its meaning.
Since pone clearly doesn't exist (as our flights are never poned at 2 pm and our doctor never pones an appointment), and there doesn't seem a possibility of it happening in the near future, prepone, though a very convenient word, is not a part of the Queen's English, or American English, for that matter. Use 'advance' if you are finicky, or simply prepone your usage of the word till it makes an entry into OED! :)
Edit: Just googled a bit and read through a few discussion thread on the topic. Most Indians think that prepone is a logical opposite of postpone. It certainly does appear that way, I must admit. While the Americans prefer to use 'move up', I came across a really interesting entry where a person claims that a more appropriate and logical antonym to postpone would be, wait for it, antepone, as opposed to prepone. I bow to this person. After this, there's nothing left to write.
Must go to blog: http://weirdbooks.blogspot.com/
10 comments:
My only opinion on this subject is that usage determines grammar. Since the word is in widespread usage in India, it should be a valid part of what is beginning to be known as 'Indian English'. (Many softwares are now even carrying separate dictionaries for Indian English.)
Lovely post. Very enjoyable. I learned that there is no word called prepone years earlier, and that too in the middle of a fight, when my then boyfriend corrected my usage. I don't remember what the fight was about any more but I remembered his acidic, "Oh and by the way, PREPONE is not even a word!"
Vinod
I agree with you, but the thing is that if we know it doesn't exist till now, we should know the reason behind it. Whether it should be included or not is a different matter, and I see no harm in it since it does seem to make sense to the common man. So it works.
Sayandi
Ah, the caustic remarks during fights. I can imagine myself totally doing it if and when I get into a fight. ;) It's one of the most irritating things you can do, and you know it, and that's why you do it. :)
Very interesting...I had actually never heard this word used in that sense until now!
In recent years, this word - with an entirely unrelated meaning - has gained use as a slang verb among American youth. In this context, the word is technically spelled 'pwn' but is pronounced as the hypothetical word you've discussed in your post. Originated by the gamer community, 'to pwn' means 'to beat' or 'to dominate.' An example of its use might be, 'Man, I totally pwned you at Warcraft III last night.' It's thought that the word originally resulted from a typo and has been used for its novelty and humor since. It's even come into use outside the gamer community, primarily among the geekier of Americans in my generation. Appropriately, I catch myself saying it every once in a while.
Ben
Ohk. I didn't know of this. The word seems more like a contraction of 'pawn' rather than 'pone' but that's interesting. I understand the novelty, but what's the humor in this? I missed that.
Tum post mein spelling mistake kabse karne lage ??
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