Categories
General

Why procrastinate…

when you can perendinate?

perendinate

PRONUNCIATION:
(puh-REN-di-nayt)
MEANING:
verb tr. : To put off until the day after tomorrow.
verb intr.: To stay at a college for an extended time.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin perendinare (to defer until the day after tomorrow), from perendie (on the day after tomorrow), from die (day).

NOTES:
The word procrastinate is from Latin cras (tomorrow). So when you procrastinate, literally speaking, you are putting something off till tomorrow. Mark Twain once said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” In other words, why procrastinate when you can perendinate?

This is from today’s’A Word a Day’ newsletter, of which I’ve been a proud subscriber since the early days of the internet (1996 or so).

Last year Sascha Lobo and Kathrin Passig pretty much introduced the term ‘Procrastinieren’ to the German language. They may have picked the wrong term after all.

Leave a Reply