Many things just piss me off because they are used by so many people, yet too often the terms are not fully thought through. Today, among other topics, I'm going to discuss the ridiculous use of the prefix, "pre."

We see it and hear it all the time: 

Pre-register now!

Now pre-leasing...

Pre-order yours today. 

Pre-boarding will now begin.

What bothers me about this is that once you've done whatever it is you're doing, it's done! If you pre-register, once you submit it, you have registered. The same goes for all of them. If you pre-lease, and you sign the papers, you have just leased. Once you step onto the plane, you've boarded. There can be no other way. 

I think the reason that this has become so popular is that Americans in general like to think that they are getting a deal, that they're getting something that someone else isn't. It makes them feel special somehow. Never mind the fact that one person certainly cannot be the only person in the world doing the registering, ordering, etc. It just makes them feel good. 

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How about the term "baby bump?" Or the one that sets my stomach acid churning, "baby daddy?" Baby bump might be appropriate for about six weeks, those first exciting days when it slowly starts to become obvious that the extra bit of tummy is more than just a few extra pounds. But when a woman is days from delivery, the whole "bump" thing seems kind of stupid to me. It's no longer a bump. 

Baby daddy? My God, that's just pure laziness. We can't punctuate anymore? We're talking about an apostrophe and an "s." Is that so difficult? The dumbing down of our country is sickening.

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