![]() had been reduced to a in the ancestor of Old French. In words from Romanic languages, often it represents reduced forms of Latin ad "to, toward for" (see ad-), or ab "from, away, off" (see ab-) both of which by about 7c. Such words sometimes were refashioned in early modern English as though the prefix were Latin ( accursed, allay, affright are examples). ![]() Or it can be the Old English intensive a-, originally ar- (cognate with German er- and probably implying originally "motion away from"), as in abide, arise, awake, ashamed, marking a verb as momentary, a single event. Or it can be a reduced form of the Old English past participle prefix ge-, as in aware. It also can represent Middle English of (prep.) "off, from," as in anew, afresh, akin, abreast. ![]() In words derived from Old English, it commonly represents Old English an "on, in, into" (see on (prep.)), as in alive, above, asleep, aback, abroad, afoot, ashore, ahead, abed, aside, obsolete arank "in rank and file," etc., forming adjectives and adverbs from nouns, with the notion "in, at engaged in." In this use it is identical to a (2). ![]() Prefix or inseparable particle, a conglomerate of various Germanic and Latin elements. ![]()
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