Pre-position

Alternative forms

• preposition#Etymology_2, {{3}}

Origin

- + pre + position#Verb

Full definition of pre-position

Verb

1. (transitive) To position (something) ahead of time.
   She pre-positioned the surgical instruments in trays on a numbered rack.
   The officers deemed it necessary to pre-position at least three battalions in case of a breakout.

Usage notes

Some stylesheets hold the hyphen to be mandatory in this term to avoid preventable homography with preposition. In this regard compare other similar pairs such as re-create/recreate, re-treat/retreat, and un-ionized/unionized.

Even when this advice is strictly adhered to, such hyphens are forgone where they are unnecessary for clarity (for example, in pretreat and pretreatment).