Prefix - Examples and Definition of Prefix

Definition of Prefix
In semantics, a prefix is a single letter or a collection of letters, which adds to the meaning of a word when positioned on the beginning. It has been derived from the Latin word praefixus, that's a mixture of phrases pre means “before,” and attach means “to fasten.” Hence, prefix means “to location before.”

A prefix is a sure morpheme that cannot stand alone, or in other phrases, it can't stand as a word independently. Prefixing is a manner of adding prefixes to other phrases to create appropriate diction for a piece of writing. Most commonplace prefixes encompass a-, an-, anti-, auto-, co-, com-, con-, contra-, dis-, en-, extra-, hetero-, hyper, inter-, non-, pre-, pro-, sub-, tri-, un-, and uni-.

Everyday Use of Prefix
Sara disagreed with Mark’s philosophy.
They have mismanaged the deal.
The café is unavailable
With determination and difficult work, not anything is impossible.
Has she planned to resume her subscription?
In these examples, dis-, mis-, un-, im and re- are examples of prefix.

Examples of Prefix in Literature
Example #1: Pride and Prejudice (through Jane Austen)
“What may be the which means of that emphatic exclamation?” cried he. “Do you bear in mind the kinds of introduction, and the stress this is laid on them, as nonsense? For you're a young girl of deep reflection, I know, and read splendid books and make extracts … Mr. Bingley changed into obliged to be on the town the subsequent day, and, consequently, unable to accept the honor in their invitation, etc. Mrs. Bennet turned into quite disconcerted. She couldn't consider what business he could have in town so soon after his arrival in Hertfordshire; and she began to worry that he is probably always flying about from one vicinity to another, and in no way settled at Netherfield as he have to be.”

In this example, Jane Austen has used various prefixes as in the underlined phrases “unable,” “disconcerted,” and “another.”

Example #2: The Crucible (by Arthur Miller)
“When one rises above the man or woman villainy displayed, one can handiest pity them all, just as we will be pitied someday … Long-held hatreds of neighbors may want to now be brazenly expressed, and vengeance taken, regardless of the Bible’s charitable injunctions … Susanna, craning around Parris to get a look at Betty: He bid me come and inform you, reverend sir, that he can't find out no medicine for it in his books … Parris, his eyes going wide: No – no. There be no unnatural motive here.”

In this passage, Miller has employed 4 prefixes in the words “displayed,” “expressed,” “find out,” and “unnatural.” They are “dis-, ex-, dis- and un-.”

Example #3: Hedda Gabler (through Henrik Ibsen)
“GEORGE TESMAN comes from the right into the inner room, humming to himself, and carrying an unstrapped empty portmanteau. He is a middle-sized, young-looking man of thirty-three, as an alternative stout, with a round, open, pleased face, truthful hair and beard. He wears spectacles, and is particularly carelessly dressed in comfortable indoor clothes… No no, I suppose now not. A wedding-excursion seems to be pretty integral nowadays.”

Here three phrases “unstrapped,” “snug,” and “vital” display the use of prefixes. Without adding these prefixes, the phrases do not make feel and appear incomplete.

Example #4: To the Lighthouse (by Virginia Woolf)
“There became a purplish stain upon the bland floor of the sea as if some thing had boiled and bled, invisibly, beneath. This intrusion right into a scene calculated to stir the most chic reflections and result in the most snug conclusions stayed their pacing. It turned into difficult blandly to overlook them; to abolish their significance in the landscape; to continue, as one walked by using the ocean, to surprise how beauty outside mirrored splendor within … [Mr. Carmichael brought out a volume of poems that spring, which had an unexpected success. The war, people said, had revived their interest in poetry.]

Woolf has used 3 prefixes in this example: in-, un- and re-“. They have converted the meanings of the phrases they are used with.

Function of Prefix
Prefixes either exchange the which means of words or make completely new words. It is, in fact, a common manner of forming new phrases with specific meanings. Prefixes assist readers understand exclusive sunglasses of meanings of words that they stumble upon for the primary time. By setting apart prefixes from the base words or roots readers can apprehend how new phrases are fashioned and how they will be used in specific approaches in a text.