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A coworker and I are discussing the word "retromingent", which means urinating backwards. We are wondering what the opposite would be: the word that means urinating forwards.

What is the opposite of the prefix "retro-"?

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Where on earth did you encounter a situation where you needed to use this term? – Fake Name Sep 21 '11 at 17:52
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Spiro Agnew used "retromingent" to describe the policies of some of his political opponents which were in his opinion backwards and destructive. One of my coworkers uses it the same way, and it made me wonder what kind of a word we could use to describe policies which are forward-looking, yet still destructive. – Erick Robertson Sep 21 '11 at 18:20
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Urinating forward! TO THE FUTURE! – fluffy Sep 21 '11 at 20:30
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I agree with you that pro- and antero- are both worthy answers, with pro- slightly better. Here is better support for pro- than merely a gathering of analogous forms: History of Animals, which I found by Googling. Another indication: Check Google for hits on promingent versus hits on anteromingent. – John Y Sep 21 '11 at 22:21
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@TomasT. metromingent just means when guys sit down to pee. – Andrew Vit Sep 22 '11 at 2:43
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3 Answers

up vote 26 down vote accepted

Well, retro- comes from Latin, originally meaning backward, back, or behind. Antero- is used in some technical contexts (such as anterograde amnesia) but it's rather uncommon. It literally means before or in front of, as in the related ante- (vs. post-).

You might be looking for something more along the lines of pro- (or progre-). In short:

retro- : back :: pro- : forth

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Depending on technical context, I would expect pro- to be better understood. It has precedents in words like prograde and retrograde. – Andrew Vit Sep 21 '11 at 16:21
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But anteromingent sounds so much cooler than promingent. – Peter Olson Sep 21 '11 at 19:32
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@Andrew Vit: While I think pro- is the appropriate answer, your precedents aren't as strong as they could be since Jon Purdy himself mentions anterograde in his answer. – John Y Sep 21 '11 at 22:06
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@JohnY I'm not saying antero- is wrong: it's probably better suited for disambiguation of some terms. Generally speaking though, more people will know what you mean by retrograde rather than anterograde... – Andrew Vit Sep 22 '11 at 2:42
up vote 14 down vote

I'd go with antero-.

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I like this option. After studying Jon Purdy's answer, though, I think anteromingent would mean urinating in front of oneself, not urinating forward. It's very similar, but has a subtle difference. Still, +1 for the great prefix. – Erick Robertson Sep 21 '11 at 18:18
up vote 1 down vote

Retro stands for something from yesteryear, most commonly used for style or fashion. In my opinion the antonym in that sense should be "modern" or "prospective".

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I'm fairly sure the OP was asking for a general prefix, not localized adjectives. – Daniel δ Sep 21 '11 at 17:14
I was also looking for the opposite of a specific word, retromingent. In this word, the retro part does not refer to yesteryear and is not used for style or fashion. – Erick Robertson Sep 21 '11 at 17:32
I paid attention specifically just to Retro. I am sorry. In this case I would agree with Jon. How about Non Retromingent? – Matrika Sep 21 '11 at 17:50
No, I'm specifically looking for a word which would mean urinating forwards. I believe it to be promingent, which is why I accepted that answer. – Erick Robertson Sep 21 '11 at 18:16

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