Ex-

#prefix #suffix #etymology Published: 2021-11-12

In my past post, I briefly wrote about the prefix “ex-“¹, but there is more to know about this prefix, so let’s look at it more carefully.

Formation

Firstly, this prefix can appear in several forms other than “ex-“. As a general rule, this formation is based on the following:

1. e- (before b, d, g, j, l, m, n, r, v)
2. ec- (before c)
3. ef- (before f)

Examples for the rule #1 include: ebullient, educate, egregious, eject, eloquent, emit, enumerate, erode, evolve.

For rule #2, eccentric.

For rule #3, effect.

Meaning

Secondly, this prefix mainly means the following:

1. out of
2. outside
3. upward
4. thoroughly
5. lacking
6. former (but still living)

One example for the sense #1 is exclude.

For sense #2, exterior.

For sense #3, extol.

For sense #4, excruciate.

For sense #5, excoriated².

For sense #6, ex-wife (usually formed with a hyphen).

Examination

Finally, let’s take a closer look at these words. Since it is not possible to examine every English word with the prefix “ex-“, let me at least loot at each word that I listed in the formation part above.

ebullient

English word “ebullient” originally meant “boiling”, and today figuratively means “very energetic”. This word comes from the Latin word “bulliō”, meaning “I boil”.

eccentric

“Eccentric” literally means “off-center”.

educate

This word is the combination of ex- and the Latin verb “dūcō”, meaning “I lead”, which kind of makes sense.

effect

The “fect” part comes from the Latin “faciō”, meaning “I do or I make”. Thus, to effect can be understood as “to do something toward the outside”.

egregious

Egregious³ means “standing out from the flock”. If you know the word “gregarious”, maybe you know what “greg” means. The “greg” part comes from Latin “grex”, meaning “flock”⁴.

This word used to be used in a positive sense in the past, but today, it almost always means in a negative sense, “conspicuously bad or wrong” (only negative meanings are found in the Cambridge Dictionary⁵).

eject

The suffix “ject” is found in a lot of English words (e.g. project, inject, etc) and is derived from the Latin word “jaceō” that means “I throw”.

eloquent

See my past post¹.

emit

“Mit” also appears in lots of English words related to “sending something”. This is because the Latin word “mittō” maens “I send”.

enumerate

It is not difficult to guess that the “numerate” part means “to count”. In fact, Latin “numerāre” means “I count” and enumerate came to mean “to specify as in a list”.

erode

The rode part comes from the Latin “rōdō”, meaning “I gnaw or I bite”.

evolve

This word is derived from the Latin “vincō”, meaning “I win or I conquer”, which is a bit different from the meaning today, “to expel a person from land by legal process”.

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