postpositioning
|post-po-si-tion-ing|
🇺🇸
/ˌpoʊstpəˈzɪʃənɪŋ/
🇬🇧
/ˌpəʊstpəˈzɪʃənɪŋ/
(postposition)
word placed after
Etymology
'postpositioning' is formed from the noun 'postposition' + the gerundive/nominal -ing. 'postposition' itself originates from Latin elements: 'post' meaning 'after' and 'positio' (from 'ponere') meaning 'a placing'.
'postposition' was formed in English from the combination of the Latin prefix 'post-' and medieval/late Latin 'positio' (from 'ponere', 'to place'); this compound entered English via learned formation and was later extended with English -ing to form 'postpositioning'.
Initially the Latin components literally conveyed 'placing after'; in English the compounded term came to denote specifically an adpositional type that follows its complement and the act of using such adpositions, a meaning preserved in 'postpositioning'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
gerund or noun: the act, process, or system of using postpositions (adpositions that follow their complement) — i.e., placing a grammatical particle or adposition after the word or phrase it relates to.
Postpositioning is common in languages such as Japanese and Turkish.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2026/01/08 03:10