Prepone

[Douglas G. Wilson]

"Prepone" = "move to an earlier time", the opposite of "postpone", is
(I guess) well known as a word which is usual in the English of India
etc. but virtually unknown in the UK or the US. [What is this called?
An Indicism? A Subcontinentalism?]

Of course it's a fine word and it must have occurred now and then in
the US (also UK, etc.), right?

Here is a US example from 1946 (from Google Books with a snippet,
therefore not 100% reliable ... but it looks good):

----------

Walter Phelps Hall, _Iron Out of Calvary_ [WW II history]
(Appleton-Century, New York, 1946), p. 258:

<<... asserting that the original date of September 15, as planned
for the grand assault, had actually been preponed, not postponed.>>

----------

There is also a Google Books (snippet) example in the periodical
_Jewish Education_, but I can't date it: <<actual study from the book
begins in the second year, with a few schools preponing it to the
third term of the first school year.>> It looks 20th-century, and I
suppose it's probably not from India.

There are also occasional instances of "prepone" with other meanings,
e.g., = "prefix" [verb] ("add as a prefix"/"place in front")
(synonymous "antepone" also occurs).

-- Doug Wilson


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