From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Preposition \Prep'o*si"tion\, noun [L. praepositio, fr. praeponere to place before; prae before + ponere to put, place: cf. F. pr['e]position. See {Position}, and cf. {Provost}.]
1. (Gram.) A word employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word; a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word; -- so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased; as, a bridge of iron; he comes from town; it is good for food; he escaped by running.
2. A proposition; an exposition; a discourse. [Obs.]
He made a long preposition and oration. --Fabyan.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: a function word that combines with a noun or pronoun or noun phrase to form a prepositional phrase that can have an adverbial or adjectival relation to some other word
2: (linguistics) the placing of one linguistic element before another (as placing a modifier before the word it modifies in a sentence or placing an affix before the base to which it is attached)
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
28 Moby Thesaurus words for "preposition": adjectival, adjective, adverb, adverbial, adversative conjunction, attributive, conjunction, conjunctive adverb, coordinating conjunction, copulative, copulative conjunction, correlative conjunction, disjunctive, disjunctive conjunction, exclamatory noun, form class, form word, function class, gerundive, interjection, part of speech, participle, particle, past participle, perfect participle, present participle, subordinating conjunction, verbal adjective
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