Wordnik word of the day: preterist

Today’s word of the day is preterist, a person who is largely interested only in the past. The root preter- is from the Latin praeter meaning “past” or “beyond.” Anyone who has studied grammar will recognize it in preterite, but it’s also found in preternatural ‘beyond what is normal or natural’ and preterhuman ‘beyond what is human.’

2 thoughts on “Wordnik word of the day: preterist

  1. These are cool words but their pronunciation is not immediately evident, even to English teachers such as I. Can you provide this info along with the word so we can all use it immediately? Thanks.

  2. Jean, if we have a definition it’ll be found by clicking on the bold, blue word. In the case of preterist, we didn’t have one, but it’s something like this: PREH-ter-ist. More or less “preterite” with an “ist” sound on the end instead of an “it” sound.

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