Prefixes and Suffixes

The English tongue has many prefixes and suffixes many of which can be easily taken out, since their meanings are already found in  ones. Thus, we can many of the inlandish prefixes and suffixes for. Other inlandish affixes are put here as well for historical interest.

un
Un oversets Latin non and has the following meanings:


 * 1) (for nouns and adjectives) shows the lack of a thing or a, e.g., unrest, uncertain.
 * 2) (for nouns) shows bad whichness, e.g., unluck, unrede (whence the nickname Æthelred the Unready).
 * 3) (for verbs) shows, e.g., undo, untie.
 * 4) (for verbs) shows, e.g., unmask, uncage.

mis
Mis has a negative meaning to show badness (factual or moral), e.g., misunderstand, misspeak, mistake. Some of the words in truth come from French, the prefix being from Old French mes (e.g., misadventure), but the prefix had the same meaning and almost the same form as mis and so easily became one with it. Mis can be brooked to overset Latin mal.


 * 1) malfunction - miswork(ing)
 * 2) malpractice - misdoing

over
Over oversets Latin super and has the following meanings:
 * 1) Means above, e.g., overhang, overshadow, oversee.
 * 2) Shows, e.g., overman (oversetting of German Übermensch).
 * 3) Shows, e.g., overdo, overambitious.
 * 4) Means utterly, e.g., overjoyed, overawe.

under
Under oversets Latin sub.
 * 1) subordinate - underling
 * 2) subterranean - underground
 * 3) subaqueous - underwater
 * 4) sublingua - undertongue

fore
Fore oversets Latin pre and ante. In many cases, the spelling has been mixed up because of the unrelated prefix for, but it ought to be spelled fore when brooked with the meaning of before.
 * 1) predict - foretell
 * 2) preface - foreword
 * 3) precede - forego
 * 4) pre-Victorian - fore-Victorian
 * 5) anteroom - foreroom

after
After oversets Latin post.
 * 1) postscript - afterword
 * 2) post-Victorian - after-Victorian

half
Half oversets Latin semi and demi, and Greek hemi.


 * 1) demigod - halfgod
 * 2) semicircle - halfcircle
 * 3) hemisphere - halftrendle (trendle is an Old English word for sphere)

all
All oversets Latin omni.


 * 1) omniscient - all-knowing
 * 2) omnipotent - almighty

ish
Ish can be brooked to overset Latin ian, ic, and ese. For :
 * 1) Icelandic - Icelandish ( it with outlandish)
 * 2) Arabic - Arabish
 * 3) Egyptian - Egyptish
 * 4) Japanese - Japannish
 * 5) gigantic - ettinish (ettin is an Old English word for giant)

This works for the adjective only. To overset Egyptian in its noun meaning (when the word talks about men), however, we can say Egyptishman, as we do for English and Irish.

ed (adjective)
Ed is put at the end of nouns to make adjectives that show the having of what the noun denotes, e.g., horned, brown-haired. It is somewhat like the past participle ending ed, but their Proto-Germanic forebears are thought to be not the same, though rather alike in form.

Of course, though having only one spelling, the ending in truth has three forms, and the forms match those of the regular past tense and past participle ending:


 * 1) Brown-haired (haird)
 * 2) Red-caped (capte)
 * 3) Left-handed (the only one whose spelling matches the pronunciation)

en (adjective)
En is an adjectival ending with two meanings:


 * 1) To have the qualities of, to be made up of
 * 2) To resemble, to pertain to

are golden, wooden, ashen, brazen, and elven. Though there is a tendency now to drop the ending, it is still often brooked, be it in its literal or its figurative meaning.

en (verb)
En is a verbal ending that can be put at the end of adjectives or nouns. Roughly, the meaning is to make something have a certain, e.g., whiten means to make something white, strengthen means to give something strength. It can be brooked to overset Latin ify and Greek ize.

dom
Dom is an ending that shows state. It was once a selfstanding word meaning judgment, but became productive as a suffix in the Old English. The selfstanding word now lives on as doom (in the end, the noun from which deem comes). Dom has the following meanings:
 * 1) Shows condition or state, e.g., freedom, boredom.
 * 2) Shows rank or office, e.g., earldom, stardom.
 * 3) Shows jurisdiction or domain, e.g., kingdom, Christendom.

hood
Hood is another ending that shows state. It was once a selfstanding word, and in Old English, it meant condition among a bunch of other meanings. The selfstanding word, however, has died out and would have become hode under normal sound changes. Hood has the following meanings:
 * 1) Shows status, e.g., childhood, parenthood.
 * 2) Shows a group or collection, e.g., brotherhood, monkhood.

In older English, head was a variant of hood. Words with this suffix included lustihead and sainthead. This variant became archaic, and the only are godhead (though easily replaced with godhood) and maidenhead (maidenhood).

ship
Ship is another ending that shows state. It is akin to the word shape and has the following meanings:
 * 1) Shows condition, e.g., friendship.
 * 2) Shows rank or office, e.g., ambassadorship, kingship.
 * 3) Shows a group, e.g., membership.

ness
Ness is an ending used to turn adjectives into nouns. Many times, it can be used instead of outlandish endings, though the words with which ness is brooked are still outlandish.


 * 1) clarity - clearness
 * 2) festivity - festiveness

ster
A suffix that nowadays shows association, e.g., youngster, gangster. It is essentially a synonym of er.

Historically, it was the feminine equivalent of er. For, in Old English, the feminine of bæcere (baker) was bæcestre (which later became the surname Baxter). Other words include songster, brewster, and webster. Not long after the Old English, however, ster soon began to lose its feminine meaning, and soon, words ending in ster became for men as well.

The only remnant of the original meaning is the word spinster, which is benooted only for women, but no longer means she who spins (the meaning of unwed woman came from the historical fact that unwed women often spun thread for their livelihoods).

Interestingly, still benoots ster in its feminine meaning, but German has lost it wholly; to overset she who leads, Netherlandish benoots leidster, but German benoots Leiterin (see en (feminine) below for more).

wan
Wan was a prefix that showed a lack of something. Old words with this prefix include wanhope (despair), wantrust (mistrust), and wanspeed (misfortune). The only word in which wan has is wanton, wherein ton is truly the past participle of a  verb.

umb
Umb is a preposition that means around and so can overset Latin circum. It is found, albeit hidden, in the phrase Ember Days.

sen
Sen means very and thus greatens the word it modifies. In Old English, as sin, it mainly meant ever, everlasting, but seemed to also mean very, immensely. The only word that still has this prefix is sengreen.

y
Y was a prefix that showed completion or association. Thus, in the form of ge, it was very productive in Old English and because of its use to show completion, it was often brooked for past participles; and German still have this as ge. Sometime in the Middle English tide, however, it became y and step by step was dropped; by Shakespeare's time, it had become an archaism, and Edmund Spenser, one well-known writer of his time, it often by putting it before past participles, e.g., ythundered, yclad.

The only remnant of its with past participles is yclept (e.g., I am yclept Alfred, that is, I am called Alfred). Yclept is the past participle of the verb clepe, which means to call. Moreover, ge took on a few other forms, however, and they are hidden in such words as aware, handiwork, and enough.

sam
Sam was a prefix that meant half. It is now found only in sandblind, a change of samblind that came from the association of sand and weak eyesight. It is also the first half of Samwise, the name of a character of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

aller
Aller came from the plural genitive of all and thus means of all. It soon was brooked with the superlative of adjectives to mean very, e.g., allerbest means best of all. In Shakespeare's time, it had been long obsolete, and only one remnant had lived on in alderliefest (very beloved), wherein aller had gotten an intrusive d (like the unrelated noun alder). Other Germanic tongues benoot their cognates of aller likewise.

twi
Twi is a prefix that means two and can be brooked to overset Latin bi, duo and Greek duo. The suffix now little known, the most well-known word in which this prefix lives is twilight (where twi is brooked in a somewhat obscure way).

thri
Thri is a prefix that means three and can be brooked to overset Latin tri. The prefix can be found only in the obscure word thrifallow (to plow for the third time before sowing).

for
For is a prefix that is found in a few common English words, but it is no longer productive, and the exact meaning is no longer remembered. As a verbal prefix, it has the following meanings:


 * 1) That an action is done with an adverse effect, e.g., forbid, forsake, forgo.
 * 2) Intensity or completion of the action, e.g., forgive, forgather.

It is often mixed up in spelling with the prefix fore.

or
Or is an obsolete prefix that roughly means out, original. It is akin to German ur, which is used to mean proto, so or can be brooked likewise. The prefix is now found only in the word ordeal (that is, that which is dealt out by the gods, and thus judgment). Incidentally, ordeal was brooked for trials of physical test in the Old English tide, whence the current meaning of painful experience; in the other West Germanic speeches, their cognates of ordeal came to be generalized in meaning and now refer to judgments of any kind.

est
Est is the second-person singular verb ending. For instance, the second-person singular present indicative of go is goest. Interestingly, the t in the ending came from thou; by the Old English tide, the pronoun had been so often put after the verb that part of it naturally became a part of the verb ending.

In Old English, strong verbs did not brook this ending for the past tense, e.g., singest, sunge, sincest, sunke. Weak verbs, on the other hand, had est, e.g., fremedest, lufodest. In Middle English, this generally the same way, but by the  tide, by strong fellowship of thou with est, the ending became attached to the past tense of any verb, whether it were strong or weak, e.g., camest, knewest, lovedst.

The way to the verb if the subject is second-person singular is onefold:


 * For the present tense, attach est to the infinitive, e.g., love, lovest, call, callest.
 * For the past tense,
 * If the verb is regular, then attach edst to the infinitive, e.g., quell, quelledst, open, openedst.
 * If the verb is irregular, and the past tense is not the same as the infinitive in form, then attach est to the usual past tense, e.g., see, sawest, go, wentest.
 * If the verb is irregular, but the past tense is the same as the infinitive in form, then attach edst to the infinitive, e.g., hit, hittedst, let, lettedst.

Note that the edst ending is separately, so showedst is two syllables long. The e in edst is outspoken, so showedst should not be outspoken as show-dst.

In Shakespeare's time, it was to shorten est, e.g., kill'st, go'st, knew'st. Verbs like cost and burst (which end with a consonant cluster that has an s) most likely did not show shortening, however, since it would be rather hard to outspeak them, so it was usual to say costest and burstest instead. And of course, verbs ending with a sibilant must brook est, e.g., kissest, teachest.

Of course, there are special verbs:


 * be - art (present indicative), wast (past indicative), wert (past subjunctive)
 * do - dost (said as dust; note that the vowel is the same as the one in does and doth), didst (shortening of diddest)
 * have - hast (shortening of havest), hadst (shortening of haddest)
 * wit (as in, to wit) - wotst (or wottest if not shortened), wist (no change, formerly wistest)
 * dare (auxiliary) - darest (either one or two syllables), durst (no change, formerly durstest)
 * will (auxiliary) - wilt, wouldst (or wouldest if not shortened)
 * shall - shalt, shouldst (or shouldest if not shortened)
 * must - must (no change, formerly mustest)

Note that wert was brooked as a past indicative every now and then, but generally, it was subjunctive; this is the distinction that the King James Bible follows, e.g., Yesterday, thou wast upset, If thou wert a baker, thy wife would be glad.

eth
Eth is an archaic verb ending for the third-person singular present indicative. It works exactly like s, e.g., he hath, he doth, he goeth, he loveth, he showeth.

In Old English, it often had the same form as the plural ending, wherefore the simplifying of inflections in the transition to Middle English left the two endings to be the same. In the Southern dialect, which was among the more traditional Middle English dialects, eth was brooked as both the third-person singular present and the plural present of all persons. It, however, was never brooked for the past tense of either number.

By the tide, in the standard dialect (which was mainly based upon the East Midlands dialect), eth became brooked for the third-person singular only, as seen in the King James Bible, one of the most well known Early New English works.

en (plural noun)
En was an old noun ending. In Old English, it was brooked much oftener, but now, there are only three words with this plural ending:


 * 1) oxen - the only true.
 * 2) children - the old plural of child was once childer, but when er was no longer seen as a plural ending, the en ending was added to it so as to make it plural.
 * 3) brethren - the plural of brother had sundry forms in Middle English. One form was brether, which was a result of umlaut (compare German Brüder), though such a formation, oddly enough, had not appeared in Old English. Soon, the standard plurals became brothers and brethren, but nowadays, the latter is brooked only figuratively.

In archaic speech, there were a few other nouns that had this ending, whether or not the ending were truly from the Old English plural nominative form:


 * 1) kine - plural of cow. The Old English form was cȳ, and kine was formed from the umlaut plural along with the plural ending, so like children, the word is a double plural.
 * 2) eyne - plural of eye. The Old English form was ēagan, so eyne is the older form.
 * 3) hosen - plural of hose. The Old English form was hosan, so hosen is the older form.
 * 4) housen - plural of house. The Old English form was hūs (in other words, the singular and the plural had the same form in the nominative), so houses and housen are both innovations.
 * 5) shoon - plural of shoe. The Old English form was scōs, so shoes is truly the older form.

en (feminine)
En was the inlandish equivalent of ess. It is now found only in vixen, the feminine of fox. The change in vowel naturally happened from the formation of the feminine in the Proto-Germanic tide, and the voicing of the first consonant was a characteristic of one of the Middle English dialects. The change in vowel can be found in its German equivalent, Füchsin, the feminine of Fuchs. One archaic word with this ending is minchen (the feminine of monk and thus meaning nun).

The following words can now be overset thus:
 * 1) goddess - godden (found in Old English as gyden, which would have become gidden now; the vowel change was due to the addition of the ending in Proto-Germanic, as seen in the related adjective giddy)
 * 2) lioness - lionen
 * 3) shepherdess - shepherden
 * 4) heroine - healthen (health is an archaic word meaning hero and is cognate to German Held, feminine Heldin).

There happened to be another feminine suffix: ster, which was essentially the feminine equivalent of er. See ster above for more.

en (plural verb)
En was an old verb ending to show that the subject was plural in the present or the past tense, e.g., we loven, ye showen, they camen. This ending is brooked likewise in and German (though in the latter, there is a special ending for the second-person plural).

In Old English, it was present only in the plural past, but in Middle English, it had become brooked for the present as well. The ending sometimes lost the n, which yielded an ending identical to that for the first-person singular. Therefore, when final e was dropped, the ending was lost wholly. In Shakespeare's day, the well-known poet Edmund Spenser often brooked en in his works so as to sound archaic or rustic.

en (infinitive ending)
En was an old ending brooked for the infinitive, e.g., the old infinitive of love was loven. This ending can be found in and German.

In Old English, the infinitive ending was an, and its dative form was enne, e.g., cuman, tō cumenne (come). In Middle English, both endings had been reduced into one en. Sometimes, the n was dropped, which yielded e as the infinitive ending. Therefore, when final e was dropped, the infinitive ending was lost wholly, and the preposition to became the lone sign of the infinitive and became meaningless in most of its. Edmund Spenser, a poet of Shakespeare's day, often brooked the old infinitive ending to sound archaic or rustic.

end / and
End was the original present participle ending, and being the Northern dialectal variant thereof in the Middle English tide. The ending for the gerund and verbal noun was instead ing. For instance, swimmend would be the present participle of swim, and swimming the gerund and verbal noun. and German still brook this for their present participle ending.


 * 1) There are fish swimmend in the water.
 * 2) The knight's fast swimming impressed the king.
 * 3) Swimming quickly is tiring.

In other words, end had an adjectival, and ing a nominal noot.

End was replaced at some point by ing in the Middle English tide, but and lasted much longer; Elizabethan poets and playwrights such as Edmund Spenser and Ben Jonson sometimes used and whenever they wanted to sound rustic or archaic.

The original present participle ending is hidden in such words as friend (from the present participle of free, which had the meaning of love) and fiend (from the present participle of a verb meaning hate).

ric
Ric is an archaic ending that showed jurisdiction. For, a bishopric is the jurisdiction of a bishop. Ric comes from riche, an obsolete word meaning realm (and it is also linked to the adjective rich; both words in the end come from Celtic); it is akin to German Reich and rijk. The other Germanic tongues brook this word far more than English, which leans toward brooking dom instead, e.g., Königreich - kingdom.

The only two words that still brook this ending are bishopric and archbishopric.

red
Red is an archaic ending that showed condition or state, much like dom, hood, and ship. It comes from Old English rǣden, which meant condition, state. In New English, there are only two words with this ending: hatred and kindred.

ling
Ling is an obsolete adverbial ending that showed manner, direction, or position. The ending now only lives in headlong and sidelong, wherein the ling was changed into long by association with other words ending with long.