Questions tagged [prefix]
Use this tag for questions about prefixes.
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archi- vs meta- prefix
In English, we use the prefix meta, e.g. in metalanguage, to mean that something is one level higher or more abstract.
I read in the preface of a book about the software Metapost that it was a mistake ...
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When does the letter s after ex- get omitted?
I ask this since there is so much variation in this situation. For example, s after ex- prefixed words mostly gets omitted in later period texts, but can also be found in Vergil's work, despite also ...
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If assūmptiō = 'take up', then can ad- (prefix) mean 'up'? But why, when super- already meant 'up'?
Are these definitions correct?
(13th, from Latin assūmptiō, the act of taking up, from Latin assūmere, which is ... to assume).
A little on etymology: the word “assumption” comes from the Latin “...
user11340
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Why is the prefix con- sometimes short, sometimes long?
A friend sent me this image:
Her question was simple: Is the Latin any good? The Latin indeed is good, and if one accepts the English to be in LOLcat, the English checks out as well.
However …
I also ...
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Which verbs come from *deh₃ and which from *dʰeh₁?
Latin has quite a few prefixed verbs looking like -dō, -dere, -didī, -ditus (condō, abdō, reddō, trādō, ēdō, etc).
I'd previously thought these came from the verb dō, dare, dedī, datus (< *deh₃ &...
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Did "interpolare" mean "polish up" or "polish among"? Why wasn't sup- used?
Does inter- mean "up" as Ayto vouches below? Is Etymonline wrong that inter- means "among, between"?
Why didn't Latin use sup-, the prefix for "up", here?
interpolate [...
user9126
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How does "ad-" work in adduco and allego?
I'm grappling with the prefix ad- in Latin. I don't know why, but I can't pinpoint its meaning. Or it just feels redundant. Here are some examples of my befuddlement.
The ad- in adduco feels ...
user9126
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Why did Latin prefix a(d)- to vis(um)?
In other words, why didn't visum itself shift to mean "opinion"? What does ad- contribute to this semantic shift?
advice [13]
Like modern French avis, advice
originally meant ‘opinion’, ...
user9126
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How does "send to" mean "allow to enter"?
Ayto doesn't expound the shift from "send to" toward "allow to enter"? I don't understand the "hence".
admit [15]
This is one of a host of words, from
mission to ...
user9126
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How did "dis-" contribute to the meaning of "directus"?
Ayto doesn't expound how *addrictiāre shifted to mean "direct something, such as a letter, to somebody".
address [14]
Address originally meant
‘straighten’. William Caxton, for example, ...
user9126
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What would the perfect stem of 'apparere' be?
Lewis and Short only give present stem forms of the verb appărĕre, appărio.
They say, quite rightly so, that it comes from ad+părĕre, and one would therefore expect the conjugation to be as that ...
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edere panem vs. comedere panem
Consider the following minimal pair:
edere panem 'to eat (the) bread'
comedere panem 'to eat up the bread'
When a resultative prefix is present (e.g. com- in comedere), panem is necessarily understood ...
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What exactly does the prefix 'in-' signify, in 'impartire'?
It seems that the Latin verb impartire (more commonly impertire) means "to share with another, to communicate, bestow, impart".
The English verb impart comes from this.
What does the prefix in- mean ...
user37
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Could the prefix ex- mean 'without'?
Could the ex- signify 'without' in the OED below? Or did English misuse it in 1b below?
1. In Latin phrases (some of which are in English written as single words), as ex animo n., ex parte adj., ...
user37
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Where does au-fugiō come from?
Hittite has a verbal prefix u- that indicates motion away from something. Kloekhorst connects it to Latin au-fugiō, "to flee from", saying they both come from PIE *h₂-u-.
However, I'd always thought ...
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Is "ex-" (old, past) seen in Latin
I just really don't know where English ex-, as in "ex-friend" exactly came from. So far I havent seen such meaning in Latin (or Greek), but I know little. It would bolster the following idea,...
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What is the correct etymology of ignōscō "pardon"?
The verb ignōscō, with the meaning "pardon, forgive", is explained in some sources as coming from the negative prefix in- and (g)nōscō. For example, Lewis and Short says "lit., not to wish to know, ...
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Can 'in-' mean both 'in' and 'no'?
The prefix in- can mean "in" or "into" or similar, as in inire.
It can also mean "non-" or "un-", as in infelix.
Both meanings of the prefix are attested, but I am not familiar with any case where ...
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Does an ig- prefix mean there's an underlying g in the root?
There seem to be certain words in Latin which start with an underlying /gn/, such as noscō /gnosko:/ [nɔsko:]—this "hidden" /g/ appears when prefixes are added, as in cognoscō /congnosko:/ [cɔŋnɔsko:] ...
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Has 'com-' been a causative prefix?
constitute {verb} Etymology : [..] con- intensive + statuĕre to set up, place: [...]
6. To make (a person or thing) something; to establish or set up as. (With obj. and compl.) Cf. 2.
8. To make ...
user37
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'in-' vs 'ex-' in intendo vs extendō
Please see the side-by-side definitions of extendo and intendo below.
in/ex-tension obviously share the same root. Did the difference in prefixes engender and explain the differences in their ...
user37
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"Laughing our heads off" in Latin
As a follow-up of an interesting question on a typological classification of Latin (Are Latin verbs of motion satellite-framed or verb-framed? ), I was wondering if Latin has (semi)idiomatic ...
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Are Latin verbs of motion satellite-framed or verb-framed?
Are Latin verbs of motion satellite-framed, verb-framed, both, or neither?
Native English verbs of motion are said to be satellite-framed: the verb usually indicates the manner of motion and a "...
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Ad- instead of co- as a prefix for morphism
I want to find a prefix for morphism to get the meaning "relevance of the form of an entity to given criteria"
Does it make sense to use ad- for this? Co- also makes sense but the word "comorphism" ...
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Prodigo = pro + ago?
According to Wiktionary, prodigo is a verb which etymology comes from "pro + ago". The same is suggested by L&S. However, I cannot see how ago fits here. The conjugation of this verb seems at odds ...
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Could applying assimilation affect meaning?
The two grammatical terms "adposition" and "apposition" are related to adpositiō, which has an alternative form appositiō. In appositiō assimilation applied, while in adpositiō assimilation does not ...
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What augmentative options are there in Latin?
Augmentative, the opposite of diminutive, is a derived word that means greater size or extent.
Diminutives are common and productive in Latin, but how about the opposite?
Some Romance languages have ...
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What does con- in "conceptus" mean? How does it relate to "a thing conceived"?
Why Do Languages Change? (2010) by R. L. Trask (1944-2004). p. 105.
(Latin conceptus is literally ‘with-taking’)
Does the prefix con- truly mean “with” here? But Etymonline says that it's "...
user3136
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How can you tell whether prefixed ‘in-’ is the preposition ‘in’ or Indo-European ‘in-’?
Background
The verb īnsum has the prefix in-. Prefixing in/in- to words, changes their meaning to ‘in’, ‘on’ et sim., or ‘un-’, ‘non’ et sim. (ɔ:¹ negation).² However, according to Wiktionary, the ...
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What is the meaning and origin of the "se-" prefix?
There are a lot of Latin words that begin with se-. It adds the notion of being "apart" or "separated":
secerno
secludo
secubo
seduco
seiungo
sepono
etc.
The linked entry calls it an "inseparable ...
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Can 'ex' in 'excurare' signify 'out'?
Etymonline states 'ex-' to signify 'out'
Scour: "cleanse by hard rubbing," c. 1200, from Middle Dutch scuren, schuren "to polish, to clean," and from Old French escurer, both from Late Latin ...
user37
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Accents in compound words and words with enclitics
I've been learning Latin on my own for the last 4 months or so using Wheelock and Moreland & Fleischer. I've not been able to find answers to the following accentuation questions in either of ...
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Prae- & Ante- (before)
The prefixes prae- and ante- both have the same meaning of 'before' in place or time. Why is the existence of both words necessary?
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How did the figurative meaning of 'iniungere' develop from the literal one?
The verb iniungere (a compound of in- and iungere) literally means "to join, fasten, attach".
However, an Etymonline entry also gives it a figurative meaning "to inflict, to attack, impose".
How was ...
user37
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What does the prefix 'ab-' mean in the Latin verb 'abundare'?
abound (v.)
early 14c., from Old French abonder "to abound, be abundant, come together in great numbers" (12c.),
from Latin abundare "overflow, run over,"
from Latin ab- "off" (see ab-) + ...
user37
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What's the logic of sub- in words like suppleo and sufficio?
The words suppleo and sufficio both derive from the prefix sub- ("under"), in which the 'b' of sub- is assimilated into the following consonant. Both these words carry the connotation of "being enough"...
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What is the correct Latin prefix for 'two-and-a-half-times'?
Question.
What is the latin prefix for "2½ times" ?
Remark.
The question asks for the correct analogue of the prefix "sesqui-" which, of course, is the prefix for "1½ times".
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Is the prefix "di-" more Latin-like than "bi-"?
Question.
(1) Is there anything close to scientifically-meaningful to say about whether the prefix "di-" is more Latin than the prefix "bi-", when indicating two-ness?
(2) Are there published ...
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Is "anti" used in Latin?
Apparently, anti is a word already available in Greek, meaning against. However, it seems this word did not reach Latin.
Still, Wikipedia entries of common English words that have anti as prefix are ...
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Why does 'a' change to 'i' in verbs derived from 'habere'?
The verbs derived from habere usually have an 'i' in the stem rather than an 'a'. For example, adhibere, exhibere, inhibere, and prohibere, leading to the modern English verbs adhibit, exhibit, ...
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Comparing per- and de- as intensifying prefixes
Both per- an de- can be used as intensifying prefixes.
It seems that per- is far more common, but also de- occurs (detritus, defetisci, deplorare…).
There is also deperire, where de- seems to ...
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Is there a prefix, suffix or adjective to indicate that something is the most numerous?
Is there any way (prefix, suffix, or adjective) to indicate that a noun is the most numerous in some aspect?
For instance, if I want to tell everybody that my horse carries the largest number of ...
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Comparing utopia and atopia
For the purposes of this questtion, let me spell the English word "atopy" as "atopia".
I have no idea why the the same kind of etymological background (same derivative on the same Greek word τόπος) ...
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Is "vicepraesidens" valid for "vice president"?
This phrase appeared in Nuntii Latini last December:
In causa erant discordiae inter praesidentem et vicepraesidentem ortae.
Is vice- a good prefix in Latin, and does it really produce the same ...
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Capitalization of adjectives with prefixes
When answering a recent question about the prefix per-, I gave an example of a national adjective (Finnus) with a prefix, to produce Perfinni.
If I attach a prefix to an adjective that always starts ...
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Can "per-" be applied to any adjective?
A long while ago, I came across a few dictionary entries under per-, meaning "very." I saw peracer, perbonus, and some others. But, I'm not sure if per- can be used as a prefix for any adjective. Can ...
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Choosing between the prefixes e- and ex-
Before a consonant on can use either version of the prepositions e/ex.
Both seem to appear in prefixes as well, but ex- is often assimilated.
It seems that, for example, words beginning with F take ex-...
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Why was rēfringō prefixed with « re- »?
[ Etymonline : ] [...]
refringere "to break up,"
from re- "back" (see re-) + comb. form of frangere "to break" (see fraction).
[ Wiktionary : ] Etymology
From re- + frangō.
I ...
user37
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Prefix chaining in Latin verbs
In Greek, it is very common to chain more than one prepositional prefix at the beginning of a verb, e.g.:
συν-εκ-βαίνω: "go out together"
ἀντι-κατα-δύνω: "set over against"
περι-εκ-χέομαι: "flow out ...
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Why was 'imperō' prefixed with 'in-' and not 'ad-'?
[ Wiktionary: ] Etymology
From in- + parō.
(with dative) I command, give orders to
I rule, govern
I demand, impose
Because the 3 definitions above matches the meaning that one ...
user37