Presumptious

[lovelylad]

What's the difference between 'presume' and 'assume', if you're saying 'I assume that is what you meant', for e.g.? Lots of people seem to use the two words interchangeably.

[allen ives]

The two are no longer distinguishable. But you can see the original difference in this phrase - "I think you presume too much" is a response to someone going too far. But you wouldn't hear "I think you assume too much" used in quite the same perjorative way.

[vittoria]

The difference would be in timing: you can presume something before the event (pre), but you assume something after it (ad+sume). You can presume someone is about to say something; after they have said it you can assume they mean xyz.