Indian English and words from India

[matt66]

There is an exhaustive list of words that have become part of the English language from the time of the Raj. It has greatly enriched the language. however there is one ENGLISH word that is currently extensively used in India (when English language is spoken/written) which is not part of the English language. The usage of the word makes perfect sense and there was even a letter in the Times (about a decade ago) that this word become part of the language. Right Abers...what is that word?? This really should be in quizzes as i know the answer, but thought it will get a better response here and i also want opinions on whether the Indians should be granted their request.

[Quizmonkey]

Slightly confused by "there is one ENGLISH word...which is not part of the English language". Huh?

[matt66]

It is an English word......(not from any indian language) and used extensively in India in written and spoken English as part of the english language, but the word is not in OED. To put it simply it is a derivation of another English word....hence the confusing term i used ie: english word.

[Quizmonkey]

Fascinating - and I'm longing to hear the answer!

[matt66]

It is prepone. Used extensively in India as an opposite to postpone. Like for eg: the meeting has been preponed. or the flight is fully loaded so we will prepone the take off...etc. I can see the logic in the usage of this word. If the OED is willing to include newer words like chav and bling in its dictionary then prepone should be allowed. What do others think

[matt66]

hang on it is in the OED. Just checked. damn should have checked earlier. It does say .....indian in the OED. So good sense prevailed. So now can someone tell me when it was first put in the OED?

[Quizmonster]

'Prepone' was a word used in English as long ago as the 16th century, in the sense of 'set before'...in sentences such as, "I always prepone the Lord in my thoughts." It has been used in the sense described above in English since the 1940s. So, though it is not used nowadays in British English, there is no question but that it is an "English" word!

[Quizmonster]

I meant to add above that 'prepone' makes a whole heck of a lot more sense than 'prequel', as in referring to a film that fills in what had happened prior to the plot in another, earlier film.

[Quizmonkey]

It's in Chambers too - but I agree, it's an interesting question.

[matt66]

QM I am intrigued....why does OED mention 'indian' in its explanation of the meaning of the word if it was used since the 1800's. I recall looking for the word about 10 years ago (when the letter was published in the Times) and it was not in the OED. So the question now is...1) was the word prepone lost in the English language 2) is the current meaning of the word different from the meaning you have given for the original word 3) when was it reintroduced in OED (with the classification as indian)

[Quizmonster]

My printed edition of The Oxford English Dictionary is the one published in the 1980s...it does not - as you say - contain the word 'prepone'. On the other hand, the online edition does; it does not, however, refer to it as 'Indian' though some quotes are India-related. It offers both meanings.
The word does, indeed, seem to have effectively disappeared from British English for several centuries. But one of the dictionary's quotations - dating from the 1940s - talks of how Milton 'preponed'...ie put back...Christ's kingship to a time before the world even existed!
To be honest, I am unsure whether there has been a more recent printed edition of the dictionary than mine and therefore cannot say whether the word appears there or not.

[matt66]

My OED is 10th edition 1999, and the definition is as follows
v. indian (in italics) bring forward to an earlier date or time.

[Quizmonster]

Matt, we may be talking at cross purposes here to some extent. The second edition of TOED is the multi-volume one such as you find filling a shelf in reference libraries and published in 1989. The online edition is an electronic, updated version of this.
There is to date no third printed edition of the 'full' dictionary, so I imagine your 1999 one must be either the Shorter or Concise version. We're not comparing like with like, in other words. But what the hey! 'Prepone' has been around in English - off and on - for half a millennium. Cheers

[chakka35]

Prepone is not in my Shorter Oxford of 1973 or my Collins of 1999. It is in my 2003 Chambers with no reference to its being Indian.