English

Alternative forms

• pre-empt
• preempt

Verb

preëmpt ‎(third-person singular simple present preëmpts, present participle preëmpting, simple past and past participle preëmpted)

1. (nonstandard) Alternative spelling of preempt
   • 1912, Frank W. Blackmar, Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. — Volume III, Part 2, page 1329:

     He was appointed probate judge by Governor Medary in 1859, and under the territorial laws it became his duty to preëmpt the townsite of Burlington, which he did, his predecessor, W. R. Saunders, having resigned to escape that duty.

   • 1999, Abraham Aaron Roback, The psychology of character: with a survey of personality in general, page 384:

     …such as Koffka’s allusion ¹ to some lectures on personality by Wertheimer, one of the leaders of the Gestalt psychology, that not all its representatives share the circumscribed view that we must preëmpt the problem of perception in all its diversified phases before we can venture forth on any other task.²

   • 2003, Joseph Lookofsky, Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law [13 Duke J. of Comp. & Int’l L. 0263]: In Dubio Pro Conventione? Some Thoughts About Opt-Outs, Computer Programs And Preëmption Under The 1980 Vienna Sales Convention (CISG), page 288:

     Courts and arbitrators should therefore think twice before interpreting the Convention so expansively as to preëmpt domestic rules designed to provide parties to sales (and other) contracts with alternative bases of remedial relief.

Usage notes

Preëmpt is an older, mostly obsolete spelling. The use of diaeresis in preëmpt (as well as coördinate, etc.) to indicate the syllable break used to be common; it was taught in U.S. schools into the 1950s. It is retained only by a few individuals and publications, most notably The New Yorker.

Related terms

• preëmptible
• preëmption
• preëmptioner
• preëmptive
• preëmptively
• preëmptor
• preëmptory

References

• preëmpt in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913, see page 1128.

Anagrams

• perempt