Wordwyrt

premature

/pˌɹiməˈtʃʊə/pree-muh-CHUUR
/pˌɹiməˈtʃʊɹ/pree-muh-CHUUR

Meaningripe too early

Common meaning: happening too early

‘before’ + ‘ripe, timely’ → premature

Journey through time

  1. Latinmātūrus, -a, -um‘ripe, timely’
  2. Englishpremature‘happening too early’ · today

pre- also in: prefixprecedeprecisepredictpreface

matur also in: mature

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Latin mātūrus ‘ripe, timely’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Lewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), entry mātūrus, p. 1120 · dictionary scan

Roots

Related words

mature

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