texas78712 (asker) Jun 12, 2022:

Thank you for your further comment. I understand "pre" means "before", but my question now is whether "pre" is really a preposition. In your examples (pre-Stalin, pre-Watergate, with or without hyphenation), it seems that "pre" still functions as a (productive) prefix, making the whole word function as an adjective (e.g., during the pre-Stalin period, _Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House_--a book title). In fact, none of my dictionaries says that it's a preposition, though they say it is a prefix, which is true of other online dictionaries, such as Cambridge (dictionary.cambridge.org), Oxford (oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com), and Longman (ldoceonline.com). Otherwise, is "pre" becoming a legitimate preposition like "in", "on", or "at"? Just my curiosity :-) .

Tomasso Jun 12, 2022:

pre Pre with hypen, whole hyphenated phrase , That is correct, PRE does not stand alone, so with the HYPNEN mark, pre makes up a complete adjective. That makes sense like you stated "making the entire phrase serve as an adjective".

texas78712 (asker) Jun 12, 2022:

Thanks. If it is the case, however, what is the part-of-speech of pre? If "pre" functions as a prefix, shouldn't it be "the pre-agricultural revolution"? Article "the" cannot intervene between the prefix and the noun?

Tomasso Jun 12, 2022:

that date pre the agricultural revolution that are dated , priii, preee, short for previous, previous to the agricultural revolution, shortened to PREEE, pre, 農業革命の前のその日付 , 農業革命以前の日付のもの gozaimas, mite kudasai...農業革命以前の年代を示すもの

農業革命以前の年代のもの

農業革命以前の年代を指す