postfix

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *pós

Proto-Indo-European *-ti

Proto-Indo-European *pósti

Proto-Italic *posti

Old Latin poste

Latin post

English post-

English fix

English postfix

From post- + fix.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpəʊst.fɪks/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊst.fɪks/

Verb

postfix (third-person singular simple present postfixes, present participle postfixing, simple past and past participle postfixed)

(transitive) To suffix.
- 1762, John Parkhurst, An Hebrew and English Lexicon: Without Points:
  Verbs with י for the first radical, often drop it in the future, imperative, and infinitive of Kal, to which last they postfix ת (לקח to take, follows this form), and in Niph. and Hiph. they change י into ו.
(biology) To subject a sample to postfixation

Noun

postfix (plural postfixes)

(chiefly computing) A suffix.
- 1843, George Moody, The English journal of education‎^[1], volume 1, page 69:
  Two, or three at the very most, of the prefixes or postfixes are quite sufficient for one day's lesson.
- 2006, Patrick Blackburn · Johan Bos · Kristina Striegnitz, Learn Prolog Now!, §9.4
  An example of a postfix operator is the ++ notation used in the C programming language to increment the value of a variable.
(linguistics) In the Czech language, a suffix that is placed after the ending.

Usage notes

Postfix is often used in programming or computing, while in the modern era suffix is used elsewhere, especially in linguistics.