pre-nuclearadj.
/priːˈnjuːklɪə/, U.S. /priˈn(j)ukliər/ 1. Of the time before the development of nuclear weapons.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > [adjective] > nuclear > pre- or post-nuclear
pre-nuclear1946
post-nuclear1963
1946 Zanesville (Ohio) Signal 28 Mar. 4/6 Nothing more dangerous than the bow and arrow, the tomahawk,..and other pre-nuclear weapons of destruction.
1968 Punch 10 Apr. 543/3 A strange, pre-nuclear atmosphere prevailed.
1987 tr. M. Gorbachev Perestroika 11 The spiraling arms race, coupled with the military and political realities of the world and the persistent traditions of pre-nuclear political thinking, impedes cooperation between countries and peoples.
2005 Washington Times (Nexis) 24 Apr. b6 In the pre-nuclear age North Korea..would be regarded as a minor blip in a world of socio-economic powers with great armories. The Bomb has changed all that.
2. Phonetics. That occurs before a nucleus (nucleus n. 12a); characterized by having a nucleus in front.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > intonation, pitch, or stress > [adjective] > accent > stressed > with respect to group
subtonic1827
pretonic1864
post-tonic1880
protonic1890
nuclear1937
prestress1941
post-nuclear1944
pre-nuclear1952
internuclear1958
1952 W. Jassem Intonation of Conversational Eng. vi. 61 The distinctive feature of the prenuclear tunes is..the relation of the final tone of the tune to the initial tone of the following tune.
1961 Y. Olsson On Syntax Eng. Verb ii. 23 In pre-, inter-, and post-nuclear sections, 4/S-units and 4/0-units may occur in various combinations.
1976 Archivum Linguisticum 7 38 One feature both subclasses share is their insistence that any non-nuclear occurrence be in prenuclear position rather than in tail (postnuclear) position.
2002 Internat. Jrnl. Amer. Linguistics 68 165 Proto-WP and Proto-Tucanoan are correctly written retaining those initial prenuclear syllables.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1946