Other forms: prefixes
A prefix is letters added to the front of a word to change its meaning, like un-. A negative prefix, add a prefix, the prefix re-.
English has borrowed most of its productive ones from Latin and Greek — re-, un-, dis-, pre-, anti- — and they attach so freely that new words are made with them daily. A prefix changes meaning where a suffix more often changes the part of speech. Note that the Latin means fixed in front.
1nounprefixLetters added to the front of a word to change its meaning.
“Adding the prefix "un" to "happy" gives you its opposite.”
prefix is a word part.
Latin praefixum comes from praefigere, to fix in front — prae plus figere. Fix, suffix and affix come from the same fixing.
Latin
praefīxum
English, today
prefix
Built from
Borrowed from Latin praefīxum, from Latin praefīxus, past participle of praefīgō (“to (fix, fasten, set up) in front”, “to fix on the (end, extremity)”) (from prae- (“before”) + fīgō (“to fix”, “to fasten”, “to affix”)), equivalent to pre + fix. a doublet of of the archaic synonym prefixum.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA