Language Gripe of the day. I recently saw the word pre-pay and wondered isn’t pay sufficient. In most transactions, the customer pays first and then gets to take the purchase home, so paying first isn’t a new concept for people. In a gas station transaction, this became a problem. People would pump their gas before paying. Except sometimes some scoundrels would skip paying.

Gasoline stations learned this lesson quickly and began to force customers to pay for their gas prior to pumping their gasoline. To announce this policy, gas stations began to post signs that said:

My complaint is the pre is totally unnecessary here. If you eliminated the pre in the above sign, the sign would read: Please pay before pumping. The pre adds nothing to this sentence. It takes up more room on a sign and creates a confusing new word. So, please stop pre-paying when you simply can pay.