18
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Is the prefix "di-" more Latin-like than "bi-"?
di- is Greek and bi- is Latin
The Proto-Indo-European root for "two" is reconstructed as *dw-. The remnants of this w can be seen in English "two", Russian dva, Ancient Greek δύο, ...
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12
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Is the prefix "di-" more Latin-like than "bi-"?
Your are confused; bi- is Latin and di- is Greek. There is no real difference in meaning between them, but in usage bi- is used with Latin constructions like bisexual and di- with Greek constructions ...
- 4,548
11
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Prefix chaining in Latin verbs
For what I know, the double prefixation beginning with per- is the most productive (I quote only a few examples):
perincertus
[per+ in + certus] (Sall. hist. 4,1,2 [Gell. 18,4,4]: perincertum ...
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11
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Could the prefix ex- mean 'without'?
Under ex- (the prefix, not the preposition), it says at the very end:
it also has a privative force (exsanguis, exanimo)
Here "has privative force" should be read as "means 'without'".
I see no ...
- 103k
10
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Imperatives of derivatives of facere, dicere and ducere
To supplement Tom Cotton's answer—
There's one other verb which similarly shortens its imperative: ferō, ferre, tulī, lātus, imperative fer, ferte. Compounds always use the shortened/apocopated form (...
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9
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What is the correct Latin prefix for 'two-and-a-half-times'?
There is a very common word in Latin that literally means "two and a half": sestertium, -i. This comes from semis + tertius, the idea being (I suppose) that it is "half-way to three [from two]."
This ...
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9
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Is "anti" used in Latin?
The closest Latin prefix I can think of is contra-.
I'm not sure if it as exact synonym of anti-, but certainly close enough for many purposes; both contra- and anti- mean "against".
The English ...
- 103k
9
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What is the difference in meaning or nuance between 'premō' and 'imprimō' in the sense of 'I press'?
Officially, imprimo means I mark/stamp (hence English impression), where premo just means I press.
The nuances of Latin prefixes have long fascinated me, and it took me forever to realize that they’...
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9
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Prae- & Ante- (before)
There are differences between the two words.
Lewis and Short give a detailed account of both prae and ante.
There are situations where they are interchangeable, but they are not synonymous everywhere.
...
- 103k
9
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How can you tell whether prefixed ‘in-’ is the preposition ‘in’ or Indo-European ‘in-’?
The negative prefix in- typically attaches to an adjective, while the prepositional prefix in- typically attaches to a verb. The main complication to this distribution is the existence of adjectives ...
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9
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Prodigo = pro + ago?
Joonas's answer is entirely correct, but just to add onto it a bit:
The way I learned it, prōd is an archaic form of prō. You'll also sometimes see pōr as in pōrrigō, pōlluō, etc: these three all ...
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Can 'in-' mean both 'in' and 'no'?
It is worth pointing out that native speakers of Latin were well aware of the ambiguity referred to by Joonas in his question (directional/locative prefix IN- vs. negative prefix IN-). For example, ...
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Why is the prefix con- sometimes short, sometimes long?
We can consider the underlying length of the vowel in con- to be short: this is the default.
In cōnsēdī, and in the majority of cases where the vowel in the prefix cō̆(n)- is long, it is a result of ...
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8
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Is "vicepraesidens" valid for "vice president"?
It's Late Latin. From the OED:
Originally this governed a following word in the genitive, but in late Latin the tendency to use the phrase as a compound noun appears in vicequæstor (equivalent to ...
cmw♦
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8
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Why does 'a' change to 'i' in verbs derived from 'habere'?
It's usual to attribute it to a point in time when Latin had a strong stress accent on the first syllable, so interior vowels in open syllables weakened to i or (depending on the environment) u. So, ...
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8
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How did "dis-" contribute to the meaning of "directus"?
Verb prefixes in Latin tend to have one of two functions. Sometimes they apply their own meaning to the verb, changing it in some significant way. And sometimes they just make the verb's meaning more ...
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7
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Why is there an "o" in "controversus"?
Just as we have both intrā and intrō, citrā/citrō, ultrā/ultrō, there used to be a form contrō, which has only survived in this word. De Vaan adduces an Oscan form contrud. Historically, the -ō forms ...
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7
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Imperatives of derivatives of facere, dicere and ducere
Generally, verbs of mixed 3rd/4th conjugation and their compounds (inf. -ere, 1st. pres. sing. in -io) all follow the same pattern, which includes compounds of facio, but not facio itself — which ...
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7
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Choosing between the prefixes e- and ex-
I went through all Latin consonants.
All consonants seem to prefer only one of e- and ex-.
I have only listed one example per consonant.
There are no (or only few and rare) verbs starting with X or Z.
...
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7
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How can you tell whether prefixed ‘in-’ is the preposition ‘in’ or Indo-European ‘in-’?
I don't think it's possible to distinguish in meaning "in" from PIE *en and in- meaning "not" from PIE *n̥ from pronunciation alone. It's well known that the /i/ in in- lengthens when followed by ...
- 4,548
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What does con- in "conceptus" mean? How does it relate to "a thing conceived"?
As typically with this kind of thing, it's good to look at the different meanings present already in classical Latin.
Lewis and Short mention "collection, gathering" as a meaning of conceptus.
And ...
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7
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Prodigo = pro + ago?
Before vowels the prefix pro- becomes prod-.
In addition to prodigere, we have prodire, prodesse, and maybe others that I forget now.
Where the -d- comes from is another question, but for practical ...
- 103k
7
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Can 'in-' mean both 'in' and 'no'?
I'm inclined to agree that participles are a likely source, as you suggest.
An example that springs to mind is innatus. As the perfect participle of innascor it means 'having been born in', etc. A ...
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7
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Is "ex-" (old, past) seen in Latin
This is what the OED has to say on the subject:
[On the analogy of forms of expression like ex exsule consul, ‘(that
has become) a consul from an exile’, the phrases ex consule, ex
magistro ...
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6
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Capitalization of adjectives with prefixes
This comes down to editorial practice and whether it's being used as a proper name or not.
So in Caesar's Gallic War, Seel capitalized both Cisalpina and Gallia, because it's Cisalpina Gallia, one ...
cmw♦
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6
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Can "per-" be applied to any adjective?
I think it's partly common sense. For example, I can't imagine them going with indefinite adjectives, e.g. *peraliqui, for which Phi database gives zero results. But would such a word even mean? How ...
cmw♦
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6
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Imperatives of derivatives of facere, dicere and ducere
I don't have enough reputation to add a comment, but I wanted to point out that at least tābefac is attested, in the Vulgate no less:
da illis formidinem et tabefac audaciam virtutis eorum et ...
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6
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Imperatives of derivatives of facere, dicere and ducere
As Weiss 2009/2011 mentions, word-final –e is “normally retained” (p. 147; emphasis mine – Alex B.). That being said, there are some few cases when word-final –e was lost (or apocopated).
In your ...
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6
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Is "anti" used in Latin?
Classical Latin does of course have anti- in Greek loanwords (e.g. antithesis), but does not seem to use it in combination with Latin words.
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Are Latin verbs of motion satellite-framed or verb-framed?
Here is a descriptive answer (see below for a long, more specialized answer):
So-called verb-framed languages are "enter running" languages and so-called satellite-framed ones are "{run in/in-run}" ...
- 6,442
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