A California caller is puzzled as to why the prefix un- seems to function in two entirely different ways in the terms undone and unmarried. This is part of a complete episode.
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A California caller is puzzled as to why the prefix un- seems to function in two entirely different ways in the terms undone and unmarried. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
The roots of this way of using the prefix “un-” seem to go back to Germanic and Latin languages. The Dutch translation of the word “unthaw” is “ontdooien” but the prefix “ont-” has a double meaning in Dutch. It can mean “not”, like the English “un-” as well as “to initiate an action” which is similar to the English prefixes “in-” and “en-” as used in “inflame”, “inquire”, “enlighten” and maybe also the “a” in “awake”, “arise”.
There are several other Dutch, German and French words in which the prefixes “ont/ent/en” are still used to indicate the initiation of an action:
– ontbijten (Dutch for to have breakfast): literally “start to bite”
– ontvlammen (Dutch), entflammen (German), enflammer (French): to inflame
– ontbranden (Dutch), entbrennen (German): to ignite
– ontstaan (Dutch), entstehen (German): to arise. Literally “to initiate to stand”
– ontsteken (Dutch): to enkindle
– ontwaken (Dutch): to awake