Thursday, September 4, 2008
Pre-Peeve
The prefix "pre-" means before. It does not mean previously. Right? As in pre-dinner drink, or pre-term labor (heaven forbid), or pre-screening. Yes? Well, there are suddenly a ton of businesses around my neighborhood that are using pre- to mean previously. It's like a contagion, everyone is doing it. I've seen "pre-worn clothing" for sale. And just yesterday I saw two car dealerships advertising "pre-driven cars." Dude. Come on. You mean used cars. Pre-driven would actually mean before it was ever driven, like before it left the factory. Which is the opposite of what you are selling. Argh!!
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4 comments:
Hallelujah. This use of "pre" bothers me as well, almost as much as the phrase, "should have went."
This is just the sort of thing that would drive me crazy too-- then again, I am the woman who often considers telling business owners that they have a misplaced 's.
My peeve is spelling things wrong because it's cute...Mor furniture, stuft burrito, phat. Please...as if our students don't have a hard enough time spelling things.
Oh, I so get this. I am the person who actually does tell business when they've used punctuation incorrectly. What has happened to the English language, and who will help me protect it?
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