Prefix

This article is about the linguistic feature. For other uses, see Prefix (disambiguation).

A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix un- is added to the word happy, it creates the word unhappy. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.

Prefixes, like other affixes, can be either inflectional, creating a new form of the word with the same basic meaning and same lexical category (but playing a different role in the sentence), or derivational, creating a new word with a new semantic meaning and sometimes also a different lexical category. Prefixes, like all other affixes, are usually bound morphemes.

In English, there are no inflectional prefixes; English uses suffixes instead for that purpose.

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.

In English

List of English derivational prefixes

Main article: English prefixes

In English, a fairly comprehensive list, although not exhaustive, is the following. Depending on precisely how one defines a derivational prefix, some of the neoclassical combining forms may or may not qualify for inclusion in such a list. This list takes the broad view that acro- and auto- count as English derivational prefixes because they function the same way that prefixes such as over- and self- do.

As for numeral prefixes, only the most common members of that class are included here. There is a large separate table covering them all at Numeral prefix > Table of number prefixes in English.

Prefix	Meaning	Example	Comments
a-	"not"	asymmetric, "not symmetric"	a- before consonants, an- before vowels
acro-	"high"	acrophobia, "fear of heights" (more)
allo-	"other"	allotransplantation, "transplant of tissue from another person" (more)
alter-	"at least secondary"	alter ego, "an at least secondary personality" (more)
an-	"not/without"	anaerobic, "not requiring air to live"	a- before consonants, an- before vowels
ante-	"before"	antebellum, "before a war"
anti-	"against"	anti-inflammatory, "against inflammation" (more)
auto-	"self"	automobile, "moves itself" (more)
bi-	"two"	bicentennial, "consisting of or occurring every two centuries" binomial, "two terms"	See number prefixes in English
co-	"together"	cooperation, "working together"
contra-	"against"	contraindication, "against indication" (more)
counter-	"against"	countermeasure, "action against" (more)
de-	"negative, remove"	deactivate, "stop from working"
di-	"two"	diatomic, "two atoms" dipole, "two poles"	See number prefixes in English
dis-	"negative, remove"	disappear, "vanish" (more)
down-	"down"; "reduce"	downshift, "shift to a lower gear" downregulation, "regulation toward lessened expression" (more)
dys-	"negative, badly, wrongly"	dysfunction, "bad function" (more)
epi-	"on, above"	epidural, "outside the dura mater" (more)
extra-	"outside"	extracellular, "outside a cell" (more)
fore-	"before"	foresight, "seeing beforehand" (more)
hemi-	"half"	hemisphere, "half of a sphere" (more)	See number prefixes in English
hexa-	"six"	hexagon, "six-sided polygon" (more)	See number prefixes in English
hyper-	"a lot"; "too much"	hypercalcemia, "too much calcium in the blood" (more)	See hyper
hypo-	"a little"; "not enough"	hypokalemia, "not enough potassium in the blood" (more)
ig-	"not"	ignoble, "not noble" ignorant, (from roots meaning) "not knowing" (more)	ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
il-	"not"	illegal, "not legal" (more)	ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
im-	"not"	imbalance, "lack of balance" (more)	ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
in-	"not"	inactive, "not active"	ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
infra-	"below"	infrared, "below red on the spectrum" (more)
inter-	"between"	interobserver, "between observers" (more)
intra-	"within"	intracellular, "inside a cell" (more)
ir-	"not"	irregular, "not regular" (more)	ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
macro-	"large-scale"	macroeconomics, "workings of entire economies" (more)
mal-	"bad", "wrong"	malocclusion, "bad occlusion" (more)
maxi-	"big", "as big as possible"	maxi-single, "single with extras" (more)
meso-	"middle"	mesoamerican, "middle of the Americas" (more)
meta-	"self-referential"	metadata, "data that provides information about other data" (more)
micro-	"small-scale"	micrometer, "small-measurement instrument" (more)
mid-	"middle"	midportion, "middle part" (more)
mini-	"small"	miniature, "small"; "smaller version" (more)
mis-	"bad", "wrong"	misspelling, "incorrect spelling" (more)
mono-	"one"	monotheism, "belief in one god" (more)	See number prefixes in English
multi-	"many", "more than one"	multiplex, "many signals in one circuit" (more)
non-	"no", "not"	nonstop, "without stopping" (more)
octo-	"eight"	octopus, "eight-footed" (more)	See number prefixes in English
over-	"excess", "too much"; "on top"	overexpression, "too much expression" overcoat, "outer coat" (more)
pan-	"all"	pancytopenia, "low counts across all cell types" pan-American, "involving all of the Americas" (more)	Sometimes "all-" is used, especially in Asian English, where All-Union was a standard translation of the Russian word meaning "pan-USSR" or "USSR-wide", and "All-India" is a similar standard term in India, comparable to words such as national, nationwide, or federal (in the case of federations).
para-	"beside"; "beyond"; "related to"; "altered"	paranormal, "beyond the normal" paresthesia, "altered sensation" paramilitary, "military-like" (more)
penta-	"five"	pentateuch, "the five books of Moses" (more)	See number prefixes in English
per-	"through"; "throughout"	percutaneous, "through the skin" (more)
peri-	"around"	pericardial, "around the heart" (more)
poly-	"many"	polyglot, "many languages" (more)
post-	"after"	postoperative, "after surgery" (more)
pre-	"before"; "already"	preassembled, "already built" (more)
pro-	"in favor of"	pro-science, "in favor of science" (more)
proto-	"first"; "primitive"; "precursor"	Proto-Indo-European, "precursor of Indo-European" (more)
pseudo-	"false", "specious"	pseudonym, "fake name" (more)
quadri-	"four"	quadrilateral, "four-sided" (more)	See number prefixes in English
quasi-	"somewhat", "resembling"	quasiparticulate, "resembling particles" (more)
re-	"again"	reestablish, "establish again" (more)
self-	"[acting on or by] oneself"	self-cleaning, "cleans itself" (more)	By normative convention, always hyphenated (except for a few multiprefix compounds such as unselfconscious)
semi-	"partial"; "somewhat"; "half"	semiarid, "somewhat arid" (more)	See number prefixes in English
sub-	"below"	subzero, "below zero" (more)
super-	"above"; "more than"; "great"	supermarket, "big market" (more)
supra-	"above"	supraorbital, "above the eye sockets" (more)
tetra-	"four"	tetravalent, "four valence electrons" (more)	See number prefixes in English
trans-	"across"; "connecting"	transatlantic, "across the Atlantic Ocean" (more)
tri-	"three"	tripartite, "three parts" (more)
ultra-	"beyond"; "extremely"	ultraviolet, "beyond violet on the spectrum" (more)
un-	"not"; "remove"; "opposite"	unopened, "not opened" (more)
under-	"beneath"; "not enough"	underexposure, "not enough exposure" (more)
up-	"up"; "increase"	upshift, "shift to a higher gear" upregulation, "regulation toward increased expression" (more)
xeno-	"foreign"	xenophobia, "fear of strangers or foreigners" xenotransplantation, "transplant from another species" (more)

Hyphenation

The choice between hyphenation or solid styling for prefixes in English is covered at Hyphen > Prefixes and suffixes.

In other languages

Japanese

The most commonly used prefix in Japanese, お o-, is used as part of the honorific system of speech. It is a marker for politeness, showing respect for the person or thing it is affixed to.

Bantu languages

In the Bantu languages of Africa, which are agglutinating, the noun class is conveyed through prefixes, which is declined and agrees with all of its arguments accordingly.

Example from Luganda

Noun class	Prefix
1	o-mu-
1a	∅
2	a-ba-
3	o-mu-
4	e-mi-
5	e-ri-/CC-
6	a-ma-
7	e-ki-
8	e-bi-
9	e-N-
10	e-N-/zi-

• The one, old, fat farmer goes.

ò-mú-límí	ò-mú-néné	ò-mú-kâddé	ò-mú	à-∅-gênda
ag-1-farmer	ag-1-fat	ag-1-old	ag. one	he-Pres-go

Navajo

Verbs in the Navajo language are formed from a word stem and multiple affixes. For example, each verb requires one of four non-syllabic prefixes (∅, ł, d, l) to create a verb theme.

Sunwar

In the Sunwar language of Eastern Nepal, the prefix ma- म is used to create negative verbs. It is the only verbal prefix in the language.

• Bad child! (scolding)

ma.rimʃo al

NEG.nice child

Russian

As a part of the formation of nouns, prefixes are less common in Russian than suffixes, but alter the meaning of a word.

пред- and положение 'position' becomes предположение 'supposition'

пре- and образование 'formation (verb)' becomes преобразование 'transformation'

German

In German, derivatives formed with prefixes may be classified in two categories: those used with substantives and adjectives, and those used with verbs. For derivative substantives and adjectives, only two productive prefixes are generally addable to any substantive or adjective as of 1970: un-, which expresses negation (as in ungesund, from gesund), and ur-, which means "original, primitive" in substantives, and has an emphatic function in adjectives. ge-, on the other hand, expresses union or togetherness, and cannot simply be added to any noun or adjective.

Verbal prefixes commonly in use are be-, er-, ent-, ge-, ver-, zer-, and miss- (see also Separable verb). be- expresses strengthening or generalization. ent- expresses negation. ge- indicates the completion of an action, and that's why its most common use has become the forming of the past participle of verbs; ver- has an emphatic function, or it is used to turn a substantive or an adjective into a verb. In some cases, the prefix particle ent- (negation) can be considered the opposite of particle be-, while er- can be considered the opposite of ver-.

The prefix er- usually indicates the successful completion of an action, and sometimes the conclusion means death. With fewer verbs, it indicates the beginning of and action. The prefix er- is also used to form verbs from adjectives (e.g. erkalten is equivalent to kalt werden which means to get cold).

See also

• Affix
• Suffix
• Privative
• Bound and unbound morphemes
• English prefix
• List of Greek and Latin roots in English
• substring#Prefix
• Metric prefix

References

Works cited

• Mihaliček, Vedrana; Wilson, Christin (2011). Language Files: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-5179-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)