"The mid-market struggled, that was pretty obvious from the discounting in the high street pre-Christmas and not all of it looked pre-planned," said Kate Calvert, an analyst at Investec.
My skin looked pre-pubescently flawless.
–They just rebuilt Chicago to look exactly as it looked pre-destruction?
In hindsight, there's always a danger that such achievements could start to look pre-ordained, when of course they were anything but.
Frank Campbell, the venerable funeral chapel on Madison Avenue, caters to A-list New Yorkers (many of whom have arrived looking pre-embalmed by the city's top plastic surgeons).
"Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision" shows that it wasn't only in childrearing that Freud could come off looking pre-Freudian.
Now, "Slip, slop, slap" is the mantra down under: "mole mapping", where doctors check if moles look pre-cancerous, is free from many employers.
But if Campbell was the playground bully in this one - I'm afraid that the contrast between podgy Gilligan and lean Campbell made the outcome look pre-determined - he wasn't alone in showing aggro.
In any event Mr Modi now looks pre-eminent, able to push aside any rivals, such as the old guard in his own party.A second trend to watch is geographical.
First, genitals without hair look pre-pubescent, and therefore the "creep" factor for me is big.
But when you're grocery shopping it's pretty easy to get distracted by convenient frozen meals and delicious looking pre-packaged sweets.
