Preposterous (August)

Richard Chenevix Trench (1859): “A word nearly or quite unserviceable now, being merely an ungraceful and slipshod synonym for absurd. But restore and confine it to its old use and to one peculiar branch of absurdity, the reversing of the true order and method of things, the putting of the last first and the first last, and of what excellent service it would be capable!” He quotes ‘The Translators to the Reader’ (Bible:1611): “It is a preposterous order to teach first, and to learn after.” Does the end justify the means?, we ask the world this August. Don’t be preposterous!