Classics 22: Etymology

Lesson 3

PREFIXES

Review: Prefixes are combining forms that occur exclusively before stems or other prefixes.

A word may have more than one prefix: anecdote ("not-given-out"), synecdoche.
A prefix may be inside a word as the result of compounding: appendectomy, microphotoreproduction
Occasionally, by clipping/shortening, a prefix may come to be a word on its own:

retro, from French retrospectif.

Certain prefixes have more than one form, which is for the sake of euphony.

Some add a consonant to work better with what follows: abstract, abscess
Some assimilate to a consonant at the beginning of the following stem.

Latin Prefixes often assimilate to the following syllable

ad "toward" is a good example: it has the following assimilated forms:
ac- as in acclimate
af- as in affable
ag- as in aggregate
ar- as in arrogant
as- as in assimilate
at- as in attention

Most of the prefixes which have multiple forms in the table below have those multiple forms as the result of assimilation.
Assimilation sometimes does not occur, and that is usually because the word was not formed in Latin, but later, such as the medical anatomical use of ad- found in 'adrenal' where ad- means "adjacent to" or "toward"

Some prefixes elide an element before stems (co- may be a case of that in the table below)

The following table has the most common meaning of the prefix, which is rarely the only meaning.

When the prefix was affixed to the stem before the word entered English, it is often impossible to figure out what the prefix "means" even though it is clear what the prefix (and stem) is.

Note that there are subtleties between dis-, in-, and non-, all of which indicate negation

dis- connotes undoing or reversing: discombobulate, disengage,
in- suggests a direct opposite, contrary to: irrational, immoral
non- indicates simple negation/absence: nonrational, non-moral
un- is a native English combining form that has several meanings from direct opposite (friendly, unfriendly), reversal (done, undone), or simple negation (inviting, uninviting)

Latin uses "cement -i-" most commonly to join together two elements (whether they are stems, prefixes, or suffixes)

But occasionally "cement -u-" is used, mostly for joining a stem to a suffix: monument, document, gradual, graduate, continue, tenuous, statue

LATIN PREFIX	A COMMON LATIN MEANING	ENGLISH EXAMPLES
ab- a- abs-	away from	ab-duct, ab-dicate a-vert, a-vocat-ion abs-tract, abs-tain
ad- a- ac- af- ag- ar- as- at- (other forms exist due to influences from languages other than Latin)	toward	ad-duce, ad-mit a-melior-ate, a-spect, a-lign ac-cept af-fect ag-gress-ion ar-rog-ant as-simil-ate at-tend ayuntamiento
ad- (does not assimilate with this meaning)	toward, near (anatomically)	ad-ren-al-ine
amb(i)-	on both sides	ambi-dextr-ous, amb-it-ion
ante-	before	ante-ced-ent, ante-diluvi-an
circum-	around	circum-st-ance
co- col- com- con- cor-	with together	co-ördin-ate, co-her-ence, co-con-spir-at-or col-late, col-lect com-pel, com-pete con-sent, con-fer cor-rode, cor-rupt
contra- (other forms exist due to influences from languages other than Latin)	against	contra-dict, contra-vert counter, country
de-	down from	de-duce, de-fic-ient
di- dif- dis-	apart	di-vert, di-late dif-fer-ent, dif-fus-ion dis-pel, dis-miss
dis-	(undoing)	dis-combobulate, dis-array defy, debauch, derange
ex- e- ef- (other forms)	out from	ex-act, ex-pense e-gress, e-ject ef-fect, ef-fer-ent escape, echappe
extra- extro-	outside	extra-ordin-ary, extra-vag-ant extro-vert, extro-rsal
in- il- im- ir-	in	in-fl-at-ion, in-it-iate il-lustr-ate, il-lus-ion im-pugn, im-pulse ir-rig-ate, ir-rupt-ion
in- il- im- ir-	not	in-aud-ible, in-vis-ible il-leg-ible, il-liter-ate im-poss-ible, im-mov-able ir-reg-ul-ar, ir-re-sist-ible
infra-	below	infra-maxill-ary, infra-cost-al
inter-	between	inter-pose, inter-ject
intra- intro-	inside	intra-ven-ous, intra-mur-al intro-duct-ion, intro-spect-ion
juxta-	beside	juxta-pose, juxta-mar-ine
non-	not	non-sense, non-de-script
ob- oc- of- op-	against in the way of	ob-ject, ob-late oc-cur, oc-clude of-fer, of-fense op-pon-ent, op-press
per- (par-) pel-	through thorough	per-fect, per-secute, par-don pel-luc-id
post-	after	post-pone, post-script
pr(a)e-	before	pre-dict, pre-vent, pre-quel preach
pro- (por-) (pur-)	forward	pro-puls-ion, pro-ject-ion por-tray pur-sue
re- red-	back again	re-capt-ure, re-sil-ient red-empt-ion, red-act-ion rappel
retro-	backwards	retro-gress, retro-active, retro(-spect-ive)
se- sed-	apart	se-duce, se-lect sed-it-ion
sub- suc- suf- sug- sup- sur- sus-	under up to	sub-ject, sub-tract suc-ceed, suc-cor suf-fer, suf-fice sug-gest, sug-gest-ion sup-port, sup-pose sur-rog-ate, sur-rept-itious sus-pense, sus-cept-ible
super- sur-	over	super-vise, super-lat-ive sur-vey, sur-plus
supra-	above	supra-ren-al, supra-caud-al
trans- tran- tra-	across on the other side (change)	trans-gress, trans-act tran-scend, tran-script tra-ject-ory, tra-verse, tra-mont-ane
ultra-	beyond	ultra-mont-ane, ultra-violet

Exercises

1. Take the stem ced- cess- (and it's Frenchified form ceed-) and combine both forms of it with the prefixes above: how many common words can you find? (at least 22 common words are possible: let me know if you find more!) If the 'etymological meaning' of the word is not clearly related to the actual meanings of the word, look it up to see how it got that way.

2. Do the same thing with gred- and gress-. You should be able to create at least 10 common words.

3. Form/think of common English words that have the following etymological meanings:
Use -ion for nouns, and -ent/-ant/-ient or -ive for adjectives or etymological meanings with -ing.
In a few cases, you may need to think French (i.e. small changes to sounds, mostly vowels)

write around	a looking inside	make ready before
a throwing out	a warning toward	put after
carry across (2 possibilities)r	a giving outside	follow out
coming before	look around at	a walking toward
a leading down	a calling together	a speaking through
carry back	turn against	write on
dive back in	feel back	blow down
a choosing back out	a together thinker	standing apart
a writing before	not able to be moved (don't think too hard)	say against
shout forth	a going round	a pushing forward
put beside	drive across	done backwards retroactive
make thru	write after	carry under

4. Divide up and give the 'etymological meanings' of the parts of the following:

scripture	innocuous	impecunious
integer	improvise	inept
impair	impeccable	nondescript
testy	constitutional	congenital
counterfeit	impropriety	solecism
resilient	exit	commit
attract	insult	contract
advocate	deride	ultramontane
intramural	infracostal	impugn
repugnant	impossible	abscess
assimilate	ambidextrous	sinister
align	antediluvian	irresistible

5. Wherever possible, for every word in 4, find another common English word that has the same Latin elements (it may have fewer or more elements: if the word were 'defect,' you might think of deficient, deficit, and defective. If in doubt about whether the words really do contain the same elements, look them up.

6. Wherever possible for the words in 3, find 3 other English words that contains the same verbal root, but not necessarily the same prefixes or suffixes.

7. Identify the parts and their 'meanings' for the following if they are single English words, or construct single English words with Latin parts with the following meanings:

sustain
addict
exile

do-ing/driv-ing
in-walk-ing
back-throw

disclaim
circumscribe
commit

down-carry (2 possible English words)
in-hold (2 possible English words)
know-ing-noun

evident
expect
suspend

plead-noun
in-come
toward-makeready-thing

exult
opposite
latent

in-blow-noun
run-ing
down-put/place (two possible words)

abscess
advocate
propose

out-move-noun
again/back-think-noun

contract
advent
deflate

exit
convict
dispute

result
deride
attract

inhibit
adore
insult

remote

NOTE: THE MATERIAL FROM HERE ON IN THIS LESSON IS MEANT TO BE INTERESTING: YOU DO NOT NEED TO LEARN IT FOR QUIZZES OR EXAMS

A More Complete Explanation of DE-
To illustrate the complexity of these prefixes.

de- ("down from")

Morphology

De- sometimes changes to des- and dis- in French. See below.

Meanings in English words

De- can mean "off, away" (defend "to ward off/away").
De- can have a bad, negative sense, as in delude or deceive.
De- can indicate a reversal of an action (deactivate).
De- can also have the intensive meaning "completely, thoroughly" (declare, declaim, denude, deplore).

The roots of a confusion

Latin de- can mean the reversal of an action (see above).
But so can Latin dis- (discombobulate, disassemble)

And so at an early stages of Old Romance languages, when they first came to be different from Latin, there were words with both de- and dis- meaning "reversal of an action."

In Old French and other Old Romance languages, dis- came to be the preferred prefix to mean "reversal of an action."

Some words which had de- meaning "reversal of an action" were changed to dis- once dis- came to be the preferred option.
New words that were formed used dis- to mean "reversal of an action."

But in French, as the language evolved, that dis- changed first to des-

English adopted many French words at this stage, but changed the des- back to the Latin dis-:

disaccord, disclaim, discharge, disarm, disband, disburse, disdain, discolor, disfrock, disrobe, disjoin, etc.all date from this period.

But French continued to evolve: des- changed to de- in French

Note: at that point, all forms of originally Latin de- as well as dis- had changed to de-.

But some were from dis- and others were from de-.

English adopted many words from French at this stage too:

debauch, defy, defile, derange, develop, etc.

Those words are the same in form as Latin de- words, but their etyma are dis- words: the French filter had changed them from the "original" dis- to de-.

Some English words are found in both forms as synonyms, usually with one form obsolete: debark/disbark (obsolete, but disembark exists) and deburse (obsolete)/disburse.

The Oxford English Dictionary's entry for de-, from which most of this information derives, indicates that the widespread use of French de- (the one derived from dis-) with privative force led to the widespread use of the same de- in English with privative force.

Keep in mind, however, that Latin de- had privative force and that it was also in use in French throughout the development of French.
In addition, the Latin prefix with privative force was known to English speakers.

The two prefixes were confused in the minds of users of both French and English.
Some words seem to have both forms but do not really. For example, one might be tempted to think that the words decompose and discompose are synonyms. But the de- in decompose is from French des-, and discompose is a modern creation that employs the Latin dis- directly from Latin and is not synonymous with decompose.
Usually, de- is added to verbs, while dis- is added to nouns and adjectives to form verbs (disenchant, dissatisfied, discontent, dismast, disembowel).

Diminution, distill, and divert illustrate the confusion of the two in Latin itself:

Diminution:

from Latin deminutio ["reduction, decrease", from de- + minutus + -io (abstract ending)]
but there is also Latin diminutio/dimminutio ["a breaking apart," which is from dis- + minutus + -io (abstract ending)].
The two became confused in Latin, where deminutio is often spelled d-i-m-i-n-u-t-i-o.

Distill:

from Latin distillare, which was also spelled d-e-s-t-i-l-l-a-r-e in Latin, from de- + stillare ("to drip"). Given the etymology, d-e-s-t-i-l-l-a-r-e would be the more "correct" way to spell the word, but it appears in many Latin manuscripts as distillare.

Divert:

from Latin divertere.
Divertere ["to separate (oneself) from"] and devertere ["to turn (someone or something) away/from"] became confused in Latin manuscripts as well.

As with many Latin prefixes, de- is not just a Latin prefix that occurs in Latin words and words derived from Latin. It is also a living prefix that is used with a wide variety of non-Latin words and word elements in English and other languages. As a naturalized English combining form, it usually indicates a reversal of an action (decanonize). When the new word is a nonce word, a hyphen is often used. A hyphen may also be used when the base word with which de- combines has an initial vowel.

What is more:
Instances of words with the prefix de- that have become difficult to recognize.

Notice that several of these words are not from Latin but are from Romance languages that have adopted Latin de- as a preposition meaning "of."

daub: from Vulgar Latin de- + albare ("to whiten")
dodrans ( a term from prosody): from Latin dequadrans ("one quarter less than that whole")
dorado (a fish: also dourado): from Spanish dorar ("guild"), from Latin de aurare ("guild")
dupe: from Middle French de huppe ("from the hoopoe bird")
gridelin (a dark purplish red): from French gris de lin ("flax gray")
paduasoy (a corded silk fabric): from Italian city Padua and also French pou-de-soie ("~ of silk")
pedigree: from Middle French pie de grue ("crane's foot")
pundonor (a point of honor): from Spanish punto de honor ("point of honor")
radzimir (a silk or rayon fabric): probably from French ras de Saint-Maur "cloth of St.-Maur"
sandever/sandiver (a kind of scum that can arise in glass manufacture): prob. from French sain de voirre ("grease of glass")
sangdragon/sandragon (a Malaysian wood): from Middle French sang de dragon ("dragon's blood")
vaudeville: from Middle French ville ("village") and vau-de-vire (a popular song, "valley of Vire")
vendaval (a wind off Gibraltar or a coastal autumnal thunderstorm in Mexico): from Spanish vendaval ("downstream wind"), from French vent d'aval ("westerly wind")
verdigris: from Old French vert de Grice ("green of Greece")
verditer (a blue or green color or pigment): from French verd de terre ("green of earth": not "earthworm" which is pronounced the same, but is ver de terre)
duende (power to attract people thru magnetism/charm): probably from Spanish duen de casa ("owner of a house"): compare "admiral" from Arabic emir al-bahr (prince of the sea), which also cuts off the ending of the etymon phrase.
vindaloo: from Portuguese vinho de alho ("wine of garlic")

Un-ex-pected ex-es:

award (ONF eswarder)	avoid (OF esvuidier)	ecru	escort
essay	issue	prosciutto	rescue
scald	scamper	scotch (the verb)	scour
scourge	sewer	sfogato	sforzando
sfumato	sgraffito	skat (cards)	slargando
slentando	smorzando	soar	square
squash	squat (ex-co-act-)	stew (ex-tuf-<Gk typh- "smoke, vapor))	sturdy (drunken thrushes!)
svelte	vent (as in vent gases)	esbat	spinto

re-re-re-

lariat (Sp. el-/la + re -aptare > reata)	raconteur (F re-aconter)	raffinate (F re- affiner)	raffraichissoir (F re- a- frais -oir)
ragout (F re - a- gout)	rallentando (It re- ad- lentus)	rally (F re- alier < L ad ligare)	rampart (F re - emparer < L ante parare)
rapport (F re apporter < L ad portare)	raccroc stitch (F raccrocher)	rapprochement (F re + approcher < LL appropiare)	rasgado (Sp. < L resecare)
ratoon (Sp < L re + autumnus)	ravigote (F < L re vigor)	reboise (F re boiser)	rebozo (Sp < L re bucca)
recreant (F < L re credere)	relleno (Sp < L re plenus)	reveille (F < L re e vigilare)	ricercar (It < L re circare)
ricotta (It < L re coctus)	rifacimento/refacimento (It < L re facere -mentum)	rinforzando	ripieno (It < L re plenus) cf. relleno
ritornello (It < L re tornare)

remora is a good story

remorse: bite back
drag under: subtract