premodifier

The premodifier is not always the guilty party.

A modifier placed before the head is called a premodifier; one placed after the head is called a postmodifier.

The first word in the phrase is a "premodifier" - an adverb that modifies and then fuses with an adjective to form a compound modifying a noun.

A false, coined, fake, bogus or pseudo-title, also called a Time-style adjective and an anarthrous nominal premodifier, is a kind of appositive phrase before a noun.

In the description of a false title as an anarthrous nominal premodifier, "anarthrous" means "lacking an article", and "nominal" is used in the sense "of the nature of a noun".

For example, in land mines, the word land is a premodifier of mines, whereas in the phrase mines in wartime, the phrase in wartime is a postmodifier of mines.