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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


 * 1) clarity - clearness
 * 2) curiosity - curiousness
 * 3) emotivity - emotiveness

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, it was very productive in Old English and because of its use to show completion, it was often brooked for past participles; Netherlandish and German still have this in the form of 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. The prefix, however, is hidden in such words as aware, handiwork, and enough.

en
En was the native equivalent of ess. It is now found only in vixen, the feminine of fox. The change in vowel was from i-mutation, 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.

The following words can now be overset thus:
 * 1) goddess - godden (found in Old English as gyden)
 * 2) lioness - lionen
 * 3) shepherdess - shepherden

There happened to be another feminine suffix: ster, which was essentially the feminine equivalent of er. In Old English, the feminine of bæcere (baker) was bæcestre (which later became 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 benooted for men as well. The only remnant of the original meaning is the word spinster, which is benooted only for women, but nowadays does not mean 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.