postpaid - Wordsmith.org

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From the realm of 'texting' comes this beauty. The neologism seems to have arisen as a logical(?) linguistic opposite to the popular prepaid card in mobile phones. As such, those who pay phone bills at the end of the month in the usual way are now referred to as 'postpaid users' in some circles. Any comments or vociferations?

- just a silent scream of despair in the lonely murk of the non-virtual world.

However, visiting a few more active topics here in AWAD will serve as an effective antidote.

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From the realm of 'texting' comes this beauty. The neologism seems to have arisen as a logical(?) linguistic opposite to the popular prepaid card in mobile phones. As such, those who pay phone bills at the end of the month in the usual way are now referred to as 'postpaid users' in some circles. Any comments or vociferations?

It makes perfect sense, rather like the Indian English "prepone". Here in Zild, we speak of "prepaid" customers and "on account" customers, but "postpaid" is not repellently ugly or pointless.

what's postp and why does it need help?

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� "postpaid" is not repellently ugly or pointless.

Not to mention that it adds a degree of precision not present in the simple paid.

yaa...though postpaid is quite commonly used, in India we call it getting a connection. makes more sense to some people.
by the way i have a prepaid.

> Not to mention that it adds a degree of precision not present in the simple paid.

Well, I mean ... I'm not looking to condemn the word, however clunky it may be. But I do find this one amusing because the usage of 'paid' doesn't have a lot to do with 'postpaid' - afterall you pay *afterwards - so its a contract where the payment for services is subsequent to their utilisation. To couple 'post-' with the past tense(!) of 'to pay' for this purpose is just classic, IMO. The tense just jars with the original meaning. I do enjoy these new prefixed words though, like 'prepone'.

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> Not to mention that it adds a degree of precision not present in the simple paid.

Well, I mean ... I'm not looking to condemn the word, however clunky it may be. But I do find this one amusing because the usage of 'paid' doesn't have a lot to do with 'postpaid' - afterall you pay *afterwards - so its a contract where the payment for services is subsequent to their utilisation. To couple 'post-' with the past tense(!) of 'to pay' for this purpose is just classic, IMO. The tense just jars with the original meaning. I do enjoy these new prefixed words though, like 'prepone'.

Wull �

The tense of the verb pay relates to the timing of the payment not the timing of the receiving of the goods or services paid for. The post/pre relates to the timing of the paying vis a vis the receiving of the goods or services. We have phone service for which we postpay, since the exact amount of the bill is dependent on the amount of service we use. We are changing to a service that allows us unlimited use and we will be prepaying since the amount of the bill is constant and therefore predictable.

Well, postpaid has been used by English speakers here for the practice of paying for handphone usage by paying a phone bill rather than buying a card in advance for a long time. It seemed such an obvious linguistic move, that I hardly noticed it as an innovation.

Prepaid cards for internet usage at wifi points have also been with us for about six months now.

... but not really.

When I lived in Brazil, one way to deal with daily inflation increases was to write a "cheque predatado." In the US, where this practice isn't so common, but there's still a term for it, we write a "post-dated check." Means the same thing. Makes my head spin. Then again, I have no life.

>>postpaid<<

It seems to me this term has been used to indicate an envelope or return-envelope that has the postage prepaid
by the business desiring your response. "Just drop the postpaid card (or envelope) back in the mail," or "Just use the postpaid envelope."

And hearkening back to the "hyphen" thread...I think I prefer post-paid (and have seen it that way many times before)...but, ahem, that's just me.

I generally steer away from neologisms,particularly those that are related to tech issues, because so many of them are contrived, twisted, artifical-sounding, or just plain "cutesy." But this one I like. Seems to me it serves a real need and while I won't use it often, if the need arises to differentiate between the two types of service I'll cheerfully use it.