preposterous
pronunciation
How to pronounce preposterous in British English:
UK [prɪˈpɒstərəs]
How to pronounce preposterous in American English:
US [prɪˈpɑːstərəs]
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- Adjective:
- completely devoid of wisdom or good sense
Word Origin
- preposterous
- preposterous: [16] Preposterous originated as a Latin oxymoron, praeposterus. This was coined from prae ‘before’ and posterus ‘coming after, next’, a derivative of post ‘after’. It denoted ‘the wrong way round, out of order’ (and indeed that was how English preposterous was once used: ‘The preposterous is a pardonable fault … We call it by a common saying to set the cart before the horse’, George Puttenham, Art of English Poesie 1589). But already in Latin the notion had developed via ‘irrational’ to ‘absurd’, a sense quickly taken up by English.
- preposterous (adj.)
- 1540s, from Latin praeposterus "absurd, contrary to nature, inverted, perverted, in reverse order," literally "before-behind" (compare topsy-turvy, cart before the horse), from prae "before" + posterus "subsequent." Related: Preposterously; preposterousness.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Their schemes range from the plausible to the preposterous .
- 2. It seemed like a preposterous idea .
- 3. A decade ago this would have been a preposterous question .
- 4. At first glance the idea seems preposterous .
- 5. Yet the idea of putting the constitution to french and dutch voters again is preposterous .