A-

#prefix #etymology Published: 2021-12-12

As you probably know, there are so many English words with the prefix “a-“ that denotes negation. Common words include “amoral”, “asymmetry”, “atheism”, “asexual”, “acyclic”, and “atypical”¹. These words are formed in a straight forward way, because they are basically the opposite of the following (respectively): “moral”, “symmetry”, “theism”, “sexual”, “cyclic”, and “typical”

This prefix comes from the Ancient Greek “ἀ-“ which is called “alpha privative”². Compared to other prefixes, its formation is pretty simple. It becomes “ἀν-“ (an-) before vowels (e.g., anesthesia).

We already looked at some words expressed as “a-“ + English word. Now, let’s briefly look at words composed of “a-“ and non-English word.

The word “atom” has this prefix “a-“ and the Ancient Greek “τέμνω” (témnō), meaning “I cut”. This is totally understandable, since generally speaking, atoms are the smallest units that can’t be cut any further. “τέμνω” can be seen in words such as “anatomy” as well, which is of course related to cutting.

Also, there are lots of commonly used names for disorders that have the form “a${X}ia” and mean something like “the loss of ${X}”. Honestly, I’m not familiar with the Ancient Greek at all, but it’s still worth breaking words down so that we can see how they relate to other English words.

aphasia

• aphasia means “the loss of ability to understand or express speech”
• “φημί” (phēmí) means “I speak”
• cf. “telephone”, “phonetic”

amnesia

• amnesia means “the loss of memories”
• “μῐμνήσκω” (mimnḗskō) means “to remember”
• cf. “mnemonic”

anorexia

• anorexia means “the loss of appetite”
• “ὄρεξῐς” (órexis) means “desire”
• cf. “orexin” (I don’t really think this is a good example, any suggestion?)

akinesia

• akinesia means “the loss of ability to move your muscles”
• “κῑνέω” (kīnéō) means “I move”
• cf. “kinetic”

asphyxia

• asphyxia means “the stoppage of the pulse”
• σφῠ́ξῐς (sphúxis) means “pulse”
• any cognates?

anoxia

• anoxia means “the loss of oxygen” (severe hypoxia)

anemia

• anemia means “lack of blood”
• αἷμα (haîma) means “blood”
• cf. hyperemia

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