Increase Your Vocabulary with Latin Prefixes

Generations of school children chanted, "Latin is a dead language, as dead as dead can be. It killed all the Romans, and now it's killing me!" The truth is, Latin is very much alive and well in countless English words, not only the English words that derive directly from Latin but also in other English words that derive from French and Spanish but which came into those languages from Latin.

The following prefixes are just a few of many prefixes that derive from Latin that can help you cope with new words. This article on English prefixes from Latin is the last in a series of six articles on English prefixes. A list of the other five articles can be found at the end.

Circum- around
Examples: circumference, the length around a circle; circumnavigate, to sail around; circumscribe, to draw or write (scribe) a line around

Co-, com-, con- with, together
Examples: cohesive, tending to stick together; communicate, to share information with; consensus, agreement
Note: In some words, con- can have the opposite meaning, that is, against, as in contradict, to speak against.

De- from, away, off
Examples: de-emphasize, to take emphasis from; de-ice, to remove ice from; depart,to leave (part) from
Note: If you find a website address that ends in .de, it is from Germany (Deutschland).

Equi- equal
Examples: equidistant, being the same distance from; equilateral, having all sides or faces equal; equilibrium, a situation in which opposing factors are equal
Note: From the Latin word equus or horse come such words as equine, referring to a horse. Equus also gave playwright Peter Shaffer the title of his play about a young man who blinds six horses.

Extra- beyond
Examples: extracellular, located outside of a cell; extramarital, referring to a relationship between people who are not married to each other (outside of marriage); extraterrestrial, from outside of the earth (terra)

Inter- between, together
Examples: interact, to act together; intervene, to come between

Intra-, intro- within
Examples: intravenous, within a vein; introvert, person whose attention is directed inward

Maxi- large
Examples: maximize, make as large as possible; maximum, largest

Mini- small
Examples: minimum, smallest; minority, small group
Note: In the 1960s, in reaction to the miniskirt (a small skirt), designers created the maxiskirt, which reached to the ankles.

Multi- many
Examples: multifaceted, having many sides (facets); multivitamin, many vitamins (in one tablet)

Omni- all
Examples: omnipotent, all-powerful (potent); omnipresent, being everywhere at once; omniscient, all-knowing; omnivore, eating anything (in contrast to a carnivore, a meat-eater, or a herbivore, a plant-eater)

Para- beside, beyond
Examples: paralegal, someone trained to assist (work beside) a lawyer; paramedic, someone trained to assist (work beside) a medical professional; Paralympics, Olympic competition for people with disabilities, held beside the Olympics.

Post- after
Examples: postmenopausal, referring to a time after menopause; postmeridian, afternoon (meridian) or PM; postmortem, after death; postscript, writing at the end of a letter or PS; posthumously, after death
Note: Unfortunately, morning is not premeridian but antemeridian or AM.

Pre- before
Examples: predict, to speak (dict) before something happens; preexistingcondition, a condition that existed before medical insurance took effect; preheat, to heat before cooking; prenatal, before birth

Re- again
Examples: reborn, born again; reinvent, invented again; retell, to tell again

Retro- back, behind
Examples: retrofit, to add to a device something not available at time of manufacture; retrograde, to go back over; retroversion, tilting or turning backward
Note: As a free-standing word, retro refers to fashion that is based on designs from the past. The word retreat (to turn back) is also related

Trans- across, beyond
Examples: transcend, to go beyond; transcultural, across all human cultures; transsexual, crossing from one sex to the other; trans-Siberian, across Siberia;

Latin, by the way, is enjoying a comeback in schools in the United States. The New York Times recently reported on the phenomenon in "A Dead Language That's Very Much Alive" (here). According to the article, during each of the past two years, more than 134,000 students have taken the National Latin Exam, compared to 101,000 in 1998.

This article is the end of the beginnings, the last of a series of six articles on prefixes. The previous five are:

Increase Your Vocabulary with Numerical Prefixes
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/849899/how_to_increase_your_vocabulary_with.html?cat=4

Increase Your Vocabulary with Fractional Prefixes
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/906371/how_to_increase_your_vocabulary_with.html?cat=4

Increase Your Vocabulary with Negative Prefixes
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/920511/increase_your_vocabulary_with_negative.html?cat=4

Increase Your Vocabulary with Prefixes with Opposite Meanings
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/955491/increase_your_vocabulary_with_prefixes.html?cat=4

Increase Your Vocabulary with Greek Prefixes
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/988812/increase_your_vocabulary_with_greek.html?cat=4

At English Just for the Fun of It, I maintain an index to all my articles on English:
http://www.squidoo.com/englishforthefunofit