"Yeahbut," Faldage sez," expatation and exaptive say what they mean, pre-adaptive and pre-adaptation don't."
Oh my, said Alice to the Queen, Words mean just what you say they mean, nothing more and nothing less.
Still, at the risk of overstating the obvious, I offer you this line of reasoning, and just on the half-chance that it was the hyphens that confused you, I have eliminated them for your viewing pleasure.
Evolution is nothingbut adaptation. The term preadaptation only has meaning in the context of a subsequent adaptation. This is the way it has been used by paleontologists for forty years.
On the other hand, an "ex" prefix before adaptation would indicate that the prior adaptation, like an ex-wife, no longer exists. This is not the case in most adaptations. But
sometimes it is, so if limited it to those rare circumstances, I, for one, could see a use for exadaptation.
But why would anyone embrace the godawful, artificial, contracted, word "exaptation"?
Has paleontology suddenly developed an aversion to long words? Has someone uncovered a secret of evolution so sublime that it requires a whole new word to encompass the concept?
Can't our language have a logical continuity?
Milum.
