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In the following sentence of today’s Time magazine’s article titled "Obama's Afghanistan problem: Neither Karzai nor the Taliban like the 'Reconciliation' Script," the word absent appears to be used as a preposition having the sense of ‘without.’

“Karzai's independent power base is minimal, as is his ability to influence the outcome of his country's civil war absent direct U.S. involvement. And that gives neither Karzai nor the Taliban much incentive to cut a deal with the other.”

As I don’t think I’ve seen case ‘absent’ being used in this way, I consulted OALD. It defines ‘absent’ only as a noun and verb. The Cambridge online dictionary also defines it as an adjective meaning ‘not in the place where you are expected to be, especially at school or work.’

Is it natural to use ‘absent’ as a preposition as used above? For example, would you casually say ‘It won’t go well absent your help’ in your daily conversation? Is it the same with the usage pattern of ‘short of’?

Erik Kowal
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Yoichi Oishi
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  • see #5 at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/absent – JeffSahol May 21 '12 at 20:25
  • Are you speaking American English or British English? Merriam-Webster has an entry for the preposition, and says it's been used this way since 1944. Although Google Ngrams shows it's now catching on in British English, it doesn't seem to have made U.K. dictionaries yet. – Peter Shor May 21 '12 at 20:51
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    @PeterShor: Note that in almost all of the examples actually cited for 2008 in that Ngram, "absent" is an ordinary adjective (generally followed by punctuation before "the"); and several of the publications are actually American. "Absent" meaning "without" is unknown in British English. – Andrew Leach May 21 '12 at 21:04
  • @Andrew: that's too strong. In the courts, I hear phrases like "absent a signed document, intention cannot be assumed" not daily, but perhaps once a week. Specialised perhaps, but still British English, and not a new phenomenon. – Tim Lymington May 21 '12 at 22:15
  • @Peter Shor. As this question regards the text of Time magazine's article, I’ll be discussing American Eng. But as a non-native English speaker, I’m not so particular with the distinction of American and British English here. Though the edition is a bit old, Oxford American Dictionary (1980) at hand defines ‘absent’ as adj. meaning 1. not present, 2. nonexistent. vb. to stay away. Webster’s Basic Dictionary of American English (1998) at hand defines it only as adj. meaning 1. not present. 2. lacking and missing. 3. Not showing interest / attention, both no mentions on the usage as preposition. – Yoichi Oishi May 21 '12 at 22:56
  • @Andrew Leach: The Ngram is for "Absent the" with a capital A; at the beginning of sentences, it is hard for "Absent" to be anything but a preposition. if you search for "absent the" with a small a, you don't see any recent steep increase in use. The examples cited are without the capital A, and come from both American and British English; this is an unfortunate deficiency of Ngrams. – Peter Shor May 21 '12 at 23:37
  • @Yoichi: Since Merriam-Webster says the first usage of absent as a preposition in 1944, this is a new development in the English language, and I presume has just recently been added to the dictionaries. – Peter Shor May 21 '12 at 23:42
  • @AndrewLeach This OED citation from 2006 looks awfully damned British to me: Daily Telegraph 17 Mar. 23/3 — An Australian republic is not only not inevitable, but, absent some calamity, it will never come to pass. – tchrist May 22 '12 at 03:21
  • OK: for my "unknown," read "virtually unknown". I'd need to see more context for the DT article, I think: was it written by a Brit? Just because something appears in a newspaper, it doesn't mean it's in general use. How many times is NYT cited for its unusual use of English? – Andrew Leach May 22 '12 at 06:12
  • Looking on the BBC website, it appears that most of the uses of absent as a preposition there are quotes, articles, or comments written by Americans, but here we have an instance which appears to be in a quote from a UK Commons Select Committee. I wouldn't call absent as a preposition an unusual use of English in the US, but it does still seem quite rare in the UK. – Peter Shor May 22 '12 at 09:30
  • @Andrew Leach: you can Google and find the Daily Telegraph reference. It was written by an Australian. – Peter Shor May 22 '12 at 10:01

2 Answers2

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The OED has the entry for absent as a preposition is marked as orig. and chiefly U.S. law, with the definition In the absence of, without, and provides citations back to the late 1800's, e.g.

1888 Southwestern Reporter 8 898 If the deed had been made by a stranger to the wife, then a separate estate in her would not have been created, absent the necessary words.

My exposure to the usage is primarily from news stories, so it makes sense that you would encounter it in Time magazine. It is a natural usage in that context, and could be replaced by short of (though that may make the tone a little less formal).

Cameron
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  • Yes, although its most recent citation is from the Daily Telegraph in 2006, which has nothing to do with U.S. law. :) – tchrist May 22 '12 at 03:19
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I will just explain this construction as it appears to me. It is in fact an adjective even when used with a noun as a preposition. The two form an absolute construction, such as those found in Latin. It is therefore not entirely synonymous with the preposition "without", although this usage of it is clearly becoming common. To understand the construction, one simply needs to rearrange the words so that they appear to relate to one another in a more familiar way. For example, if we rearrange the sentence "Spain will win Euro 2012 absent a major upset" to read "Spain will win Euro 2012, a major upset absent", we can see that the word "absent is still an adjective in this usage. However, this usage of it has led to incorrect ones, such as used countless times in the Spartacus TV series. Before killing Silonius, Spartacus compliments him, saying "You are not absent skill". This is the prepositional usage which is in recent American dictionaries and was born from misunderstanding. I would suggest that when writing formally, it is important to remember that it is an adjective and to use it accordingly, such as in the first example. I would like to stress that I am fully aware of the acceptance of "absent=without" but that I thought I could shed some light on how it became so prevalent.