Re: correct English usage
On Tue, 3 Apr 2012 15:41:20 +0000 (UTC)
Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> dijo:
>But the above does not imply that using "posterior" in the above
>stanza is wrong. It can be improved (we are not writers not editors)
>but not incorrect. Those "old Latin" lovers (me included :-P) would
>even use the term "ulterior" for the said meaning.
(OT)
Latin POST, SUPRA and ULTRA meant 'after, following,' 'above, over,'
and 'beyond. All came into English as prefixes. And English borrowed so
many thousands of Latin words which already contained them as
prefixes that, over time, English speakers just reanalyzed them as
English prefixes.
The interesting part is that Latin applied endings to words in order to
form the comparative and superlative (like English -er and -est).
Thus, POSTERIOR, SUPERIOR and ULTERIOR meant 'more after, more
following,' 'more above, more over,' and 'more beyond. Languages do
funny things, especially when borrowing from another language.
Instead of becoming the comparative forms they became non-prefix
adjectives, and lost the comparative meaning.
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