Page 1 of 1

Procrastinate

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 11:16 pm
by Dr. Goodword

• procrastinate •

Pronunciation: prê-kræs-tê-nayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: To postpone, to defer action, to put off doing something, to delay.

Notes: Procrastination must be common among English-speakers, for this Good Word has a large and healthy family. The action noun, as you can see, is procrastination, while the personal (agent) noun is procrastinator—that's someone who procrastinates. Procrastinators tend to be procrastinative or, as others say, procrastinatory. Both are good adjectives, no matter what your spellchecker says.

In Play: The motto of all procrastinators is, "Never do today what can be put off til tomorrow." I assume that none of our readers are procrastinators who will put off reading today's Good Word until tomorrow. Lest you think I am procrastinating, let me reel off an example of this very Good Word now: "I always procrastinate buying Christmas presents until the last minute and seldom have a wide selection to choose from."

Word History: Today's Good Word is another of the long line of English words shamelessly lifted from the Latin lexicon. It comes to us from procrastinatus "delayed until tomorrow", the past participle of procrastinare "to delay until tomorrow". This verb comprises the prefix pro- "forward" + crastinus "tomorrow's" + the verbal suffix. Crastinus is the adjective for cras "tomorrow", a word without a past, so far as we know. We do know it is unrelated to crassus "thick", whence came the English word crass.
word crass.

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:00 pm
by LukeJavan8
I am getting to the point in my life where I can say
"Tomorrow is another good day that has not even
been touched yet!".

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 1:08 pm
by Perry Lassiter
I think I want to comment, but I will wait until tomorrow.

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 1:21 pm
by gailr
I think Snoopy once wrote, "Never put off til tomorrow what you can put off indefinitely."

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 8:30 pm
by David Myer
My father, who coined many useful phrases, used to say that constipation was the thief of time.

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 10:37 pm
by MTC
You all are a funny lot, you are.

Let me add something a tad more serious, and hope I will not be thrown out of the party. "Procrastinate" has a little-used near antonym, "prepone:"

prepone [priːˈpəʊn]
vb (tr)
Indian to bring forward to an earlier time
[pre- + (post)pone]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

Most of us are not particularly preponic, human nature tending to procrastination, at least about problems or difficulties. But when it comes to pleasure as William Blake wrote,

"He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy
He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise."

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 9:43 pm
by Perry Lassiter
Maybe I shall become a proponent of preponing in the pursuit of the illusive happiness!

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:53 pm
by Slava
Indian to bring forward to an earlier time
[pre- + (post)pone]
I must be missing something here. What does "Indian" mean in this case? :?

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:18 am
by MTC
Good question. I have emailed Collins Dictionary for an explanation.

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 3:27 pm
by Perry Lassiter
Perhaps a comment by Tonto, who didn't always get his verbs right?

Re: Prepone

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:26 pm
by Audiendus
I must be missing something here. What does "Indian" mean in this case? :?
It seems that "prepone" is mainly used in India. See this Wiktionary entry, then click on "citations page".

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:40 pm
by Philip Hudson
Deliver us from Indian English.

Re: Procrastinate

Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 2:02 pm
by misterdoe
A few days ago I saw a t-shirt for sale on MentalFloss.com with the slogan "Amateur Crastination League -- turning pro next week."