Word of the Day
May 20, 2026
Preposterous
Contrary to nature, reason, or common sense; utterly absurd or ridiculous; so foolish on its face that the reasonable response is disbelief.
From Latin praeposterus, meaning the reverse of natural order, from prae- (before) and posterus (coming after); the word originally captured the absurdity of placing what should be last in front of what should be first.
Usage Examples
- Douglas Frank told Kim Monson it was preposterous for Colorado counties to keep mailing ballots to addresses that had already returned a quarter of them undeliverable.
- Calling a closed-loop cooling system that still needs ten gallons of make-up water a minute fully closed is preposterous on its face.
- The board dismissed the proposal as preposterous and asked the developer to come back with realistic numbers.
From the Show
Douglas Frank reached for preposterous when he described counties that keep mailing ballots to addresses where a quarter or more come back undeliverable, then pay return postage on top. The word fits the rest of the broadcast as well: closed-loop cooling claims at AI data centers that still require ten gallons of make-up water a minute, and a property tax system that lifts every neighbor’s bill the moment one outside developer pays eighty thousand dollars for ground that would otherwise sell for twelve hundred. Frank’s example framed the May 20, 2026 broadcast on data centers, voter roll lawsuits, and the AI land grab.