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English prefixes are affixes (i.e., bound morphemes that provide lexical meaning) that are added before either simple roots or complex bases (or operands) consisting of (a) a root and other affixes, (b) multiple roots, or (c) multiple roots and other affixes. Examples of these follow: undo (consisting of prefix un-and root do)
The following is an alphabetical list of Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes commonly used in the English language from A to G. See also the lists from H to O and from P to Z . Some of those used in medicine and medical technology are not listed here but instead in the entry for List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes .
Adding a prefix to the beginning of an English word changes it to a different word. For example, when the prefix un-is added to the word happy, it creates the word unhappy. The word prefix is itself made up of the stem fix (meaning "attach", in this case), and the prefix pre-(meaning "before"), both of which are derived from Latin roots.
The following is an alphabetical list of Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes commonly used in the English language from P to Z. See also the lists from A to G and from H to O . Some of those used in medicine and medical technology are not listed here but instead in the entry for List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes .
Meaning: a prefix used to make words with a sense opposite to that of the root word; in this case, meaning "without" or "-less". This is usually used to describe organisms without a certain characteristic, as well as organisms in which that characteristic may not be immediately obvious.
Example Search for titles containing the word or using the prefix: dactyl-, dactylo-G δάκτυλος (dáktulos) finger or toe: black-legged kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla; Pterodactylus: All pages with titles beginning with Dactyl: deca-, deka-G δέκα (déka) ten: alfonsino, Beryx decadactylus: All pages with titles beginning with Deca ...
For example, the negating prefix un-is more productive in English than the alternative in-; both of them occur in established words (such as unusual and inaccessible), but faced with a new word which does not have an established negation, a native speaker is more likely to create a novel form with un-than with in-. The same thing happens with ...
The be- prefix originally meant "about" but, in prepositions, came to mean something closer to "at" or "near". For example, one sense of the preposition before means "at or near the front". Though the be- prefix is still productive in forming words of certain parts of speech, it is no longer used to form new prepositions. [25]