History, science and stories are full of order: what came first, what followed, what was coming next. This topic gathers the words that put things in time, and most of them are built from four Latin parts you can spot at a glance.
Key idea
pre- and ante- = before (preliminary, predecessor, precursor, prescient, antecedent). post- = after (posterity, posthumous). sequ = follow (subsequent), and ced/cess = go (predecessor, successor, antecedent). The odd one out is harbinger, an old English word for someone sent ahead.
Two pairs are worth keeping straight: a predecessor held the job before you, and a successor holds it after you; something preliminary comes before the main event, and something subsequent comes after.
The ten words
Common mistake
posthumous is pronounced POS-chuh-mus: the h is silent. prescient means foreseeing; it has nothing to do with "present."
| before | after |
|---|---|
| preliminary (comes before the main part) | subsequent (comes after) |
| predecessor (held the role before) | successor (holds it after) |
| antecedent, precursor (came first, led to it) | posterity (the people who come after) |
| harbinger (a sign of what’s coming) | posthumous (after a person’s death) |
| prescient (knows before it happens) |
prescient has nothing to do with present. It is pre- (before) + sci (know), the same sci as in science: a prescient person knows before. And posthumous is said POS-chuh-mus; the h is silent.