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I'm struggling to say 'before previous' in one word. Like "I visited my parents pre-previous month". Is there a suitable word?

Valentin V
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    I can't think of any single word. I would say, "I visited my parents [the] month before last." – Matt Gutting Jul 02 '14 at 16:38
  • NOUN before last ... I visited my parents month before last – StoneyB on hiatus Jul 02 '14 at 16:38
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    @StoneyB ".. the month before last." – Dom Jul 02 '14 at 16:45
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    @user Naw, people say that sort of thing all the time, like I visited my folks week before last or I already took that test two Fridays ago. Nothing wrong with it at all. – tchrist Jul 02 '14 at 17:00
  • "... two months ago." – Elliott Frisch Jul 02 '14 at 17:00
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    I visited my parents back in May. – tchrist Jul 02 '14 at 17:01
  • @tchrist unless it's a text message, or part of a conversation, my personal opinion is that leaving out the is a typo. – Dom Jul 02 '14 at 17:02
  • Related question on ELL with a near exhaustive list of was to refer to previous places, times, events etc. – Patrick M Jul 02 '14 at 17:05
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    @user It's not a typo; it's what I intended; it's how I say it; it's perfectly correct when month (or week, year, century etc) is locative rather than substantive. It's not uncommon (or incorrect) even when month is substantive: Month before last was wetter than last month. – StoneyB on hiatus Jul 02 '14 at 17:11
  • @StoneyB I can't imagine a sentence where leaving out the would still sound correct except as a quick response, i.e. 'Q: When did you get your new glasses? A: Month before last.' I've read a lot of books, and spent 22 years in England, and in my opinion it just sounds wrong. – Dom Jul 02 '14 at 17:19
  • @user *“I’ll see you Thursday.”* Hope this helps and have a nice day. – tchrist Jul 02 '14 at 21:20
  • @tchrist now you're missing an on! :P It's fine to say that in conversation, but I don't understand how that pertains to using the before month before last? – Dom Jul 02 '14 at 21:23
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    @user Certainly am not! It’s fine to say in conversation, fine to say in writing, fine to say in love, fine to say in the confessional. The point is that you seem to think that locatives need more window-dressing that they really do. This is merely a personal affectation unshared by millions and millions and millions and millions of native speakers. – tchrist Jul 02 '14 at 21:33
  • @tchrist in anything even semi-formal, I am of the opinion that they are necessary. I don't know the rules, I only know what sounds and looks right. In a business email, I would never leave them out on purpose. I might leave them out in a verbal conversation with friends. – Dom Jul 02 '14 at 21:38
  • @user Apparently you are unaware that this is a very well documented transatlantic flippery, and you shouldn’t think that cisatlantic use by native speakers is ipso facto wrong; to the contrary, in fact. – tchrist Jul 02 '14 at 21:40
  • @tchrist I guess I won't be hiring an American copywriter anytime soon then :P (final comment, feel free to delete). – Dom Jul 02 '14 at 21:44

5 Answers5

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As in comments, "two months ago" or "the month before last" are common ways to phrase this. As also noted on comments, some folks will drop "the" from "the month before last." That's a pretty informal mode of speech, but bear in mind that there's another "month" implied in the phrase already "the month before last [month]."

wordsmythe
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A late answer but you can say "penultimate".

Misti
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beatrice
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    Penultimate means last but one, but that's last in the sense of the one before the final one, not the one before the previous one. – Jamie Bull Jun 05 '18 at 11:16
  • penultimate should work, assuming the current item is the latest item, and we are interested in the one before it. – Tyler S. Loeper Jul 01 '19 at 16:35
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    @TylerS.Loeper but in that case "penultimate" would simply be a synonym of "previous". then you'd need "pen-pen-ultimate" and we're back at the same problem we started with – Some_Guy Jul 22 '19 at 19:49
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If you really need a single word, just give the name of the month.

Oldcat
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    I'm trying to name a function in programming, it's relative to current date, takes a certain date in the month before last, can't use the specific month name because of that – Valentin V Jul 02 '14 at 17:27
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    Then you used a poor example, and programming terms are off topic as well. Personally I would name it "TwoMonthsAgo()". short, pithy names in Programming are very poor practice rather than descriptive ones. – Oldcat Jul 02 '14 at 17:29
  • Yeah, I know, you're right of course. But I'd like to learn this word in general, besides programming usage. – Valentin V Jul 02 '14 at 17:32
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    There is no such common word in English. Someone may come up with some coined word used once in 100 years, but then nobody will know what you are saying if you used it. As everyone is saying, the common phrase is "month before last". – Oldcat Jul 02 '14 at 17:36
  • If what you want is a computer code identifier, there’s no reason why you can’t use “pre_previous”. – Scott - Слава Україні Jul 02 '14 at 20:35
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    @Oldcat Hey, isn’t two_months_ago() still one word? :) – tchrist Jul 02 '14 at 21:22
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    it certainly is a single legal C/C++ identifier! – Oldcat Jul 02 '14 at 21:24
  • I've got similar problem, I need to name objects. I believe author of that question knew that he could use "TwoMonthsAgo()" or "two_months_ago()" as a function name, but he probably didn't want to use it because it's not really two months ago, it depends of current day. And it's hard to say which moment of the month was two months ago. I think "CurrentMonth()", "LastMonth()" and "MonthBeforeLast()" would be the best. – alcohol is evil Dec 04 '16 at 16:48
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How about “ante-previous”?  (I just made it up, but I believe that it makes sense.)

Scott - Слава Україні
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It isn't quite what you're asking for, but an analogous example exists. In British English, a reference to last Friday might be worded as "Friday week" or "Friday last". The same idea would apply here, as, for instance, "October last". I think it is a bit more elegant than "last October", but that might be due to the relative novelty of the phrase to American ears.

Wad Cheber
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