Preposterous
Discover the surprising origin of the word 'Preposterous'
When you call something preposterous, you're actually saying it's backwards. Literally, physically backwards. And that's not a metaphor someone invented last century -- that's a Roman thought from the 1st century BCE.
Most people assume preposterous just means "wildly absurd" and stopped caring about the parts. It's got post in it, right? Maybe it means "after" something? Nope. You're thinking about the pieces wrong.
The real story starts with Latin. Prae means "before." Posterus means "behind" or "coming after." Smash them together and you get praeposterus -- literally, before-behind. The Romans used this phrase when describing something in backwards order, when the natural sequence got flipped on its head. Cicero himself used it around 50 BCE to describe logical arguments that put the cart before the horse. It wasn't funny then. It was a serious rhetorical flaw. By the 1500s, English borrowed the word, and somewhere along the way, we stopped thinking about the spatial chaos and just started using it to mean "absurd" or "ridiculous."
But the dead metaphor is still there. Every time you call something preposterous, you're describing a world where cause comes after effect, where the ending arrives before the beginning. You're painting a picture of fundamental disorder.
There's a reason the word stuck around for two thousand years. It describes something we instinctively know is wrong -- not just factually, but structurally.
Preposterous is your word of the day. This is The Why of Words.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the origin of the word Preposterous?
- The word preposterous comes from Latin praeposterus, formed by combining prae (meaning "before") and posterus (meaning "behind" or "coming after"). Romans in the 1st century BCE used this phrase to describe things in backwards order, and Cicero employed it around 50 BCE to criticize logical arguments that put the cart before the horse.
- Why is it called Preposterous?
- It's called preposterous because the Latin components literally mean "before-behind," describing the fundamental disorder of having something backwards or out of natural sequence. The name reflects the idea that preposterous things have their cause and effect reversed, with the ending arriving before the beginning.
- Where does the word Preposterous come from?
- Preposterous originates from Latin praeposterus, which combined the Latin words prae ("before") and posterus ("behind"). English borrowed the word by the 1500s from this Latin root, eventually shifting from its literal meaning about backwards order to its modern sense of "absurd" or "ridiculous."
Got a word you've always wondered about?
Submit it here