Vorzeitige

Vorzeitige is the attributive form of the German adjective vorzeitig, meaning premature or occurring earlier than planned. It is used to describe events, actions or conditions that happen sooner than expected. The term appears in both formal and everyday language and can modify nouns across various domains, such as law, medicine, and daily life.

Grammatical notes are important: vorzeitige is declined to match the gender, number and case of the noun it modifies. Examples include die vorzeitige Entlassung (feminine singular, nominative), der vorzeitige Abbruch (masculine singular), das vorzeitige Ende (neuter singular). For plural nouns one finds phrases like vorzeitige Maßnahmen.

Contexts and nuance: vorzeitig often signals that something happened sooner than a scheduled time or expected course, and it can carry a negative or evaluative sense. It is commonly used in legal and medical language and in everyday speech. Typical collocations include vorzeitige Entlassung, vorzeitige Geburt, vorzeitige Ejakulation and similar phrases describing premature outcomes or actions.

Etymology and translations: the word derives from the prefix vor- meaning before and zeit, time, together indicating anterior timing. In English, vorzeitig translates as premature or untimely, while the attributive form vorzeitige corresponds to “premature” when paired with a feminine noun (and similarly inflected for other genders and numbers).