Hello Wordsmithers, I'm an artist currently working on a project that would benefit from a kind of antonym for the word "anniversary" – the idea being that this word would mean something like "a date that commemorates an event that will happen in the future". I suppose it's a little like a countdown, but the idea would be that this word could refer to (for example) a day exactly 10 years before something happens.

I think it would work best if the word was constructed with plausible etymology, and should at least sound like it's a real word. Then again, I'm open to all ideas – perhaps the rule is simply that if it sounds right, it is right.

The project launches in a couple of months and I'd love to hear from anyone who fancies having a crack at this before then!

Well . . . that is a challenge. I hope I am not too late for your needs. You could try . . . precursoversary. Precursor is something that comes before, or in some definitions an advanced message of something to come. So a percursoversary would be the turning back to something that is to come. Anniversary is composed of yearly and turning, so returning to something yearly. So a precursoversary would be turning to something that is to come or that comes before. We get the word verse from the same root, where the line turns in a poem. You could play with the spelling. I couldn't figure a way to say yearly without making the word too cumbersome to say easily. I hope that might at least give you some idea how it might be done. You project sounds fascinating! Good luck!

WELCOME TO YOU BOTH

Anticiversary?