preposition
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: prĕp-ə-zĭsh'ən
ipa: /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/
Forms: form: prepositions
form: præposition
Etymology: From Middle English preposicioun, from Old French preposicion, from Latin praepositio, praepositionem, from praepono (“to place before”), equivalent to pre- + position. Compare French préposition. So called because it is placed before the word with which it is phrased, as in a bridge of iron, he comes from town, it is good for food, he escaped by running.
Senses: examples: text: 322. The parts of speech which are neither declined nor conjugated, are called by the general name of particles. 323. They are adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
ref: 1844, E. A. Andrews, First Lessions in Latin; or Introduction to Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, 6th edition, Boston, page 91:
text: And in (121) below, we see that when a wh-NP is used as the Object of a Preposition, the whole Prepositional Phrase can undergo WH MOVEMENT:
 (121) (a) [To whom] can I send this letter —?
 (121) (b) [About what] are they quarrelling —?
 (121) (c) [In which book] did you read about it —?
ref: 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 9, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 495:
text: I love this girl. “On which I can get my hands” — even in her darkest moment, she cannot bring herself to end a sentence with a preposition.
ref: 2014 June 1, “Net Neutrality”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 5, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: Any of a class of non-inflecting words and multiword terms typically employed to connect a following noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word: a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word.
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: An adposition.
examples: text: […] he made a longe preposicion & oracion cōcernynge yͤ allegiaūce which he exortyd his lordes to owe
ref: 1811 [1516], Robert Fabyan, edited by Sir Henry Ellis, The New Chronicles of England and France, page 116:
glosses: A proposition; an exposition; a discourse.
Hypernyms: topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: adposition
topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: part of speech
topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: term
topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: word
Hyponyms: topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: intransitive preposition
topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: phrasal preposition
topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: preposition of place
Coordinate terms: topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: circumposition
topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: postposition
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from preposition (noun)
word: intransitive preposition
sense: terms derived from preposition (noun)
word: phrasal preposition
sense: terms derived from preposition (noun)
word: prepositional
sense: terms derived from preposition (noun)
word: prepositionally
sense: terms derived from preposition (noun)
word: prepositional phrase
sense: terms derived from preposition (noun)
word: preposition of place
sense: terms derived from preposition (noun)
word: preposition of time
Related terms: sense: terms related to preposition (noun)
word: prepose
sense: terms related to preposition (noun)
word: prepositive
word: preverb