Make Your Point: PRE-EMPT

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pronounce PRE-EMPT:

pree EMPT

connect this word to others:

As we most often use it, the word pre-empt is synonymous with prevent; avert; thwart; pre___de (literally "to shut before"); and ob__te (literally "to [put] in front of [your] way").

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

In the word "pre-empt," the "pre-" means "before," and the rest traces back to the Latin emere, to buy.

In its original sense in English, a pre-emption was a purchase made before anybody else had a chance to make it. For example, when it comes to buying land, a government might claim the right of pre-emption.

Today, "pre-empt" can still mean "to claim something, especially land, for yourself before anyone else can."

But in general conversation, it's grown to mean "to prevent something from happening by taking action before it can happen." It still expresses that someone is jumping into a situation and doing something before somebody else has a chance to do some other thing.

Like Lloyd here as he pre-empts whatever it is Mary was about to say.

(Source)

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

It's a verb, the transitive kind: "They tried to pre-empt this problem."

Other forms:

The other verb forms are "pre-empted" and "pre-empting."

The adjective is "pre-emptive," as in "They argued it was a pre-emptive attack."

And the adverb is "pre-emptively," as in "They attacked pre-emptively" and "Mary was about to reject Lloyd, but he shushed her pre-emptively."

The noun for the person who pre-empts things is "pre-emptor." And the noun for the idea or the action is "pre-emption."

Finally, if you don't like the hyphen, feel free to leave it out; many writers do. Here's Homer Hickman: "'I know what I did was wrong, Mom,' I said in a bid to preempt whatever she had in mind."

how to use it:

Pick the formal, semi-common word "pre-empt" when you want to emphasize how someone is sensing the opportunity to get ahead of the game and stop something unpleasant or inconvenient from happening.

You might talk about people pre-empting problems, complaints, objections, criticisms, comments, questions, delays and so on. We saw in the gif above that Lloyd was pre-empting Mary's rejection.

To use the adjective, you might talk about pre-emptive strikes, attacks, treatments, surgeries, and other actions.

examples:

"At social events he became so afraid of causing offence, or of himself being offended, that he would pre-empt all potentially upsetting topics by asking an endless series of factual questions."
— David S. Wallace, The New Yorker, 2 May 2019

"I ate like a pig. The way I ate I should have been obese. At a certain point the family thought I had worms. Whenever I went to my cousins' house for the holidays, my mom would drop me off with a bag of tomatoes, onions, and potatoes and a large sack of cornmeal. That was her way of preempting any complaints about my visit."
— Trevor Noah, Born a Crime, 2016

has this page helped you understand "pre-empt"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "pre-empt" without saying "prevent" or "stave off."

try it out:

In a Washington Post advice column, a reader complained about how creepy it is when "everyone... 'talks' to [a] person who died via their Facebook wall," to which the columnist replied that "an immediate family member can have Facebook remove a decedent's account, so you have the power to preempt those depressing postmortem 'talks.'"

With this in mind as an example, talk about something people do that creeps you out or annoys you, and try coming up with a way to pre-empt that behavior.

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is Make Your Point Before & After!

I'll give you a clue, and you give me a verbal mashup including at least one word or phrase we've studied before.

For example, if I give you "It's the kind of theatrical stage setting that encourages the actors to radically overact," then you give me "mise en scenery chewing," a mashup of "mise en scene" and "scenery chewing."

Try this one today: It's when you instigate a social disaster by attempting to mimic a group's slang and tone of voice.

To reveal the first two hints, highlight the hidden white text.

Hint 1: The number of words in this Before & After is... two, with a hyphen.

Hint 2: The first word in this Before & After is... too big of a hint, but the first letter is F.

Hint 3: Use this term.

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. One opposite of PRE-EMPT is

A. REPLY.
B. ENSURE.
C. POST-EMPT.

2. In Dumb and Dumber, Harry and Lloyd play a game where they pre-empt each other's moves by shouting things like "_____"

A. Cannot! Triple stamped it! No erasies!
B. According to the map, we've only gone 4 inches!
C. I'll bet you twenty bucks I can get you gambling before the end of the day!

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
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From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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