ante up

the latin word ante means "before" and is useful by itself but also as a root for many other words and phrases such as:

• ante - by itself a poker term for the small buy-in fee placed before the round starts.
• ante meridian - commonly seen as a.m., ante meridian translates to "before midday." (this leads to post meridian or p.m. which translates to "after midday")
• antemortem - uttered almost daily on cbs (home of c.s.i.), this word means "before death."
• antebellum - in the united states this typically refers to "before the civil war," but the phrase literally just meas before any war.
• many similar "before" words in romance languages: antes (spanish); avant (french); avanti/anti- (italian)

~there's no ekscaping these common mispronunciations

some of these are more common than others, but the words that really get me (in an engineering atmosphere) are 'acrost' and 'heighth'.