“Unraveling the Mystery: Why Do We Love to Prefix Our Words with ‘Pre’?”

In 2020, the Associated Press Stylebook officially surrendered in its long-standing battle against the word “preheat.” Yes, you read that correctly! The AP acknowledged that while the term may seem redundant—why not just say “heat” your oven?—the majority of us prefer to preheat it. After all, most recipes use “preheat,” and let’s face it, your oven likely has a button that says just that. It’s a classic linguistic conundrum: why do we throw around prefixes like “pre-” before words that don’t seem to need them? From “pre-existing” to “prerecorded,” it’s almost like we have a collective urge to add a dash of drama to our everyday language. But is that so bad? Dive into this delightful exploration of our linguistic quirks and discover why preheating—and its companions—aren’t going away any time soon! [LEARN MORE](https://www.mentalfloss.com/the-reason-we-add-pre-before-so-many-words?utm_source=RSS#inline-text-5).

In 2020, the Associated Press Stylebook finally waved a white flag in the war against preheat.

“Yes, it’s redundant,” the organization wrote on Facebook. “But overwhelmingly, we heard it’s what you want to use. It might be accurate to simply say that you heat your oven, rather than preheat it, but since recipes use preheat and your oven probably has a preheat setting, we updated {the stylebook} to reflect common use.”

Some commenters piped up in support of preheat, while others just scorned the term’s distant cousins—preexisting, prerecorded, preboard. “I’ll preheat the oven but I won’t preregister for events no matter what!” one person wrote. Another referenced a classic George Carlin bit about the prefix: “What does it mean to preboard, do you get on before you get on?”

The post shined a spotlight on our habit of slapping pre- before a word that doesn’t seem to need it. But many of these apparent redundancies actually aren’t redundant—and even when they are, it’s not for no reason.

1. Solving the Pre-quation
2. Pre-dundancy and Pre-suasion

Solving the Pre-quation

With some words, the prefix pre- does modify what comes directly after it. Prewar means “before the war,” for example, and premarital means “before marriage.” But countless pre- words follow a different equation. Consider the verb preview, which is rarely (if ever) condemned as redundant. Everyone grasps that you’re not viewing something before you view it—you’re viewing it before other people view it, or before the usual time to view it. (Or you’re viewing a small part of something before you view the whole thing.) In short, pre- is modifying an implied element that comes after the word that comes after it. Prewar is {pre + X}. Preview, on the other hand, is {X + pre + Y}.

Carlin’s definition of preboard actually acknowledges this Y element; he just feigned ignorance about what fills the blank for comedic effect. It doesn’t take much thought to realize what makes more sense: Preboarding isn’t getting on before you get on—it’s getting on before other people get on (or getting on before the usual time to get on). Similarly, preplanning a funeral isn’t planning it before you plan it: It’s planning it before the usual time to plan it. Even preprepare adheres to this logic: Prepreparing lunch means you’re preparing it before the usual time to prepare it (right before it’s eaten). It’s not the most elegant phrasing, but it’s clear that preprepare and prepare don’t mean the exact same thing.

(Sometimes the equation itself does depend on the context. As an adjective, preboarding can function as {pre + X}. If you say your favorite preboarding ritual is to drink a margarita in the airport Chili’s, you mean the ritual occurs before boarding.)

The Y often references the specific context surrounding the pre- term. Preexisting conditions typically involve insurance: They’re medical conditions that existed before you purchased a health insurance policy. Preheating typically involves cooking: You’re heating the oven before you put any food in it. Preordering typically involves release dates: You’re ordering an item before it’s been released.

In other words, we use pre- as shorthand for context that doesn’t need to be articulated because it’s automatically understood; it’s part of the definition of the pre- word. Even the most egregiously redundant pre- terms frequently serve this purpose. Presliced bread is just sliced bread, preinstalled software is just installed software, and prewashed lettuce is just washed lettuce. But in each case, pre- is emphasizing a silent but key part of the message: that the work was done prior to purchase.

Take, for example, this sentence from Gold Medal Bakery’s history of sliced bread: “In the early 20th century, pre-sliced bread was a novel, strange idea.” Readers understand that the strange idea was bread sliced before it hit shelves—not the concept of sliced bread in general. Dropping the pre- would make that less explicit. (As for whether to hyphenate each of these pre- terms is a whole other debate. We copied Merriam-Webster to keep it simple.)

Pre-dundancy and Pre-suasion