meaning - Is “Prewin” a well-received English word?


I find Maureen Dowd’s article in November 24 NY-Times titled “But can they eat 50 eggs?”amusing. She compares the leadership and charm of character between President Obama and Robert Griffin III, the quarterback of the Washington Redskins in the article. But I was caught by the word, “a prewin slump,” which I’ve never heard of, in the following sentence:



"While Obama has developed an unnerving and enervating pattern of going into a prewin slump — as in New Hampshire and Texas in the 2008 primaries or the first debate with Mitt Romney — RGIII never allows his batteries to run down while he’s playing."



I thought it’s “pre-winning” meaning pre-victory, and I checked Cambridge, Oxford and Merriam-Webster online dictionaries as I always do before posting a question. None of them registers “Prewin” nor “Pre-win.” Google Ngram neither shows any incidence of “Prewin” and “Pre-win.”


What does “Prewin” slump mean? Is this a well-received English noun or adjective, or Dowd’s customary creative coinage?



Answer



It just means that the slump happened before the win. It's probably a reversal of the post-[noun] trope, as in postpartum depression, the slump in mood that many mothers experience after giving birth.


The prefixes pre- and post- attach to many nouns easily, and therefore this is a commonplace. You can have a post-victory party, a prenuptial agreement, pre- or post-prandial (before or after dinner) drinks, and so on. So while you can't necessarily find prewin in an NGram search, it's instantly recognizable and understandable.


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