[Vocabulary] Post-war

[ucef]

Hi all, does the word post-war signify what happens only after a war or even during a war?
Thank you in advance

 

[SirGod]

* Not a teacher

This should clear you up:

Post-war - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[TheParser]

Hi all, does the word post-war signify what happens only after a war or even during a war?
Thank you in advance

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


There are two Latin prefixes that we English speakers absolutely must know:

pre- (before)

post- (after)

Then we can often guess what a word means.

 

[ucef]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


There are two Latin prefixes that we English speakers absolutely must know:

pre- (before)

post- (after)

Then we can often guess what a word means.

I'm a little bit confused! Last year we had a subject which deals with "post-colonialism", when the teacher defined it, she proclaimed that it is about what occurs during the and afther the colonization.

 

[SoothingDave]

Your teacher was wrong. "Post" means after.

"Post-war" would usually refer to World War II if not otherwise specified.

 

[Barb_D]

In the US, we refer to the Colonial Era for the time when the colonies belonged to England. The Post-Colonial Era is when we were just a baby nation... but definitely not before then.

(I'm not sure about the capitalization there. I just did what looked right, but it could well be that it should all be lower-case.)

 

[TheParser]

I'm a little bit confused!

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

(1) So am I!
(2) Well, if a teacher said that, then she/he must be correct.

(3) Consider this horrible sentence of mine:

The post-colonial history of many countries has been disappointing, to

say the least.

(a) For many of us ordinary speakers, it means:

Since the so-called colonialists have left, the political and economic situation in many of those countries has disappointed many people.

(i) For us ordinary speakers, the definitions are very clear:

pre-colonial days = before the Americans and the Europeans decided to visit the other continents in order to offer guidance.

colonial days = the time during which some countries were under American or European guidance.

post-colonial days = Since the time that those countries received official independence.

 

[5jj]

(2) Well, if a teacher said that, then she/he must be correct.

no, NO. NO.

Teachers is human beans. Us is as cappabbel of makking misteak's as anyone eles'.

 

[Rover_KE]

Speek four yoreself.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Ucef,

(1) I have just read something that may interest you.

(2) In China, the young people are often referred to as bawuhou.

ba = 8
wu = 5
hou = after

(3) Therefore, the English translation is: The post-1985 generation.


Source: The New Yorker magazine, February 6, 2012.

 

[BobK]

no, NO. NO.

Teachers is human beans. Us is as cappabbel of makking misteak's as anyone eles'.

:up: I'd be inclined to cut this teacher a bit of slack though. My son has a PhD in Post-colonial literature, and his studies involve thinking about the practices during the colonial period that led to the attitudes and features common to post-colonial thinking. 'Post' does mean 'after' of course, but an academic can't shut his/her eyes to what came first.

So, if you like, the teacher was 'wrong'. But they were saying something important about their area of study.

b

 

[BobSmith]

For reasons I don’t know, the U.S. uses the abbreviations B.C. and A.D. to fix a timeline to history, specifically around the birth of Jesus Christ. While “B.C.” is an English abbreviation for “Before Christ”, the “A.D.” abbreviation is inexplicably Medieval Latin “Anno Domini”, for “In the year of the Lord”. Well, it’s common for the uneducated to think (and not surprisingly so) that “A.D.” means “After Death”. If this were true, we’d be missing some 33 years!

 

[JimDaly]

The meaning of 'post war' or 'post-war' seems to be partly culturally dependant. As a person who grew up in Australia, having been born in 1944, I was conditioned through the use of this term in my environment to regard the phrase as referring to the period after the Second World War, from 1946 on possibly into the late-fifties or even early sixties. It is a relative term. For people from other cultures, it could refer to a period (often of political and material reconstruction ) following a localised war, e.g., the post-war or 'post-Milosevic' period following the conflicts in the Balkans. Although Vietnamese may refer to the period following the victory of the North over the South as 'post war', for example, I have not heard Australians referring to this period generally as the 'post war' period. They just say 'after the Vietnam war'. The period between the First and Second World Wars is sometimes referred to as just that: 'between the wars'. But one could only say that more or less after the Second World War. I'm not sure if the phrase 'post war' was commonly used in the period after the First World War and before the commencement of the Second World War. Interesting that Roman writers referring to the period before the outbreak of the Carthaginian wars called it the 'antebellum', literally 'before the war'. 'antebellum' has been used by some writers, I think, in reference to other before war periods, e.g., before the Civil War in the States. It's a fascinating question. Jim Daly.

 

[Tdol]

I'm a little bit confused! Last year we had a subject which deals with "post-colonialism", when the teacher defined it, she proclaimed that it is about what occurs during the and afther the colonization.

It doesn't- the periods are linked, but this term does not cover both.