Origin: Latin suffix -tion
Preposition has 4 different meanings across 1 category:
a function word that combines with a noun or pronoun or noun phrase to form a prepositional phrase that can have an adverbial or adjectival relation to some other word
(linguistics) the placing of one linguistic element before another (as placing a modifier before the word it modifies in a sentence or placing an affix before the base to which it is attached)
Any of a class of non-inflecting words typically employed to connect a following noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word: a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word.
To place in a location before some other event occurs.
The word "preposition" comes from Latin praepositio, meaning "a placing before." It is named this way because these words are positioned before the noun or phrase they modify in a sentence.