- What is the origin of ex? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange
Origin of ex-ex-is a word-forming element, which in English simply means "former" in this case, or mainly "out of, from," but also "upwards, completely, deprive of, without It most likely originated in Latin, where ex meant "out of, from within," and perhaps, in some cases also from Greek cognate ex, ek
- abbreviations - Whats the difference between e. g. and ex . . .
"Ex " is not very common, but it may be used to refer to a cited example, eg "See ex 3" "E g " is much more common, and is used to introduce an example, or series of examples In speech, it is usually replaced by "for example"
- Whats the difference between ex- and former
Another take is that "ex" is a compound form, while "former" is an adjective That would be "the difference in usage" But they both mean the same thing I don't think "ex" has a negative connotation Perhaps, in the President Prime Minister case, "former" implies that he's still living
- nouns - How to write a plural form of ex (ex girlfriend. . etc . . .
ex (n ) is a casualism in the sense of a former spouse or lover The plural of ex is exes, and the possessive is ex's — but be aware that many readers will find these forms odd-looking Wiktionary also says it's exes: exes (n ) (plural of ex English) vb (en-third-person singular of: ex)
- Is there an equivalent to née (birth name) for an *ex*-spousal name?
EX is also interesting because 1) Someone's ex is the person they used to be married to or used to have a romantic or sexual relationship with and 2) ex- as a prefix is added to nouns to show that someone or something is no longer the thing referred to by that noun For example
- Using the words post facto - English Language Usage Stack Exchange
"Post facto" is almost always part of "ex post facto" "Post hoc" is currently about as common in Ngrams, but more common in Google search results In this case "after-the-fact" approval works well, too –
- Addressing a former office-holder by that offices title
An ex-ambassador is not Ambassador Anybody However, these days, no one pays attention to such niceties, which means that everybody pretty much gets called whatever Just ask them how they wish to be addressed; that guarantees that you won't address them in a way contrary to their own preferences
- Word that sounds like its meaning, not onomatopoeia (ex. twinkle)
1 For those who still aren't sure about this phenomenon, Terry Pratchett explains it better than I can (though it seems he wasn't aware of any common word for it):
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