Etymology

preposition

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Today it means: Any of a class of non-inflecting words and multiword terms typically employed to connect a following noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word: a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word. Full definition →

Middle English preposicioun ← Old French preposicion ← Latin praepositio, praepositionem
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preposition · noun1

  1. Latin · derived frompraepositio, praepositionem
  2. Old French · derived frompreposicion
  3. Middle English · inherited frompreposicioun
  4. English todaypreposition

From Middle English preposicioun, from Old French preposicion, from Latin praepositio, praepositionem, from praepono (“to place before”), equivalent to pre- + position. Compare French préposition. So called because it is placed before the word with which it is phrased, as in a bridge of iron, he comes from town, it is good for food, he escaped by running.

preposition · verb2

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*preh₂-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*préh₂i?
  4. Proto-Italic*prai
  5. Proto-Italic*prai-
  6. Latinprae-
  7. Middle Englishpre-
  8. Englishpre-
  9. Englishposition
  10. English todaypreposition

From pre- + position.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.