In India the words ‘prepone’ (as an antonym of ‘postpone’) and ‘recordical’ (as a substitute for ‘documentary’) are being increasingly used even by educated speakers. Are they acceptable?
Hi THL,
The word ‘prepone’ has made its way into some American dictionaries, but it is inevitably described as being ‘Indian’. There may possibly be a few who have embraced the word ‘prepone’ here in the US, however I myself have heard people using it ONLY during discussions about what is sometimes referred to as ‘Hinglish’ or ‘Indish’. If you were to use it in everyday conversation in the US, I would guess you’d usually have to clarify what you meant.
I had never heard of ‘recordical’ before you posted it here. I did a search in the Corpus of Contemporary American English as well as in the NY York Times and there were no usage examples. I could not find it in any dictionaries either. So, that’s a word you’d definitely have to explain if you used it here.
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[size=75]“Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.” ~ Winston Churchill[/size]
The references I can find list ‘prepone’ as being ‘Indian English’:
prepone (third-person singular simple present prepones, present participle preponing, simple past and past participle preponed)
(India) To reschedule to a time earlier than the current scheduled time.(Wiktionary)
This word is not really an IR-specific one but is widely encountered in Indian English. To prepone something is to advance its scheduled occurrence and is the opposite of ‘postpone’. (Indian Railways Technical Terms)
I can find no mention of ‘recordical’.
I have never come across either term before, so suspect that the usage is limited to India and those from that area.
Indian experts in English have not recognized these two words as acceptable, while there is ‘advance’ for ‘prepone’ and while there is ‘documentary’ for ‘recordical’.
As I have clearly said, they are found spoken, and not written.
However, I am happy and surprised to learn that ‘prepone’ has crept into some lexicons in the US. So, the coinage of ‘prepone’ is logical and capable of being accepted.
I can, at least, see the possible etymology behind that one (Latin: praepōno - “to place before”). but you should bear in mind that ‘Wiktionary’ is a ‘worldwide public collaboration’ lexicon rather than one created by an official body. The contribution is just as likely to have come from someone in India.
The second reference is India-specific.