The Cycle

This happens at least once a day.

And the cycle begins again.

Language Of Confusion: Prefixes, Part III

Back on the prefixes. And there are still a lot more that I won’t be looking at.
 
Pre-
What better way to finish off my look at prefixes than by looking at the one that’s actually part of prefix? It comes from the Old French pre- and Medieval Latin pre-, which are from the classical Latin prae, before (another one). It’s from the Proto Indo European peri-, which is from the root per-, which I’m sure looks familiar to you.
 
Per-
Per generally means through, and is related to per the word, as both come from the classical Latin per, which means by, through, or just plain per. That word comes from the Proto Indo European per- that I mentioned earlier. The PIE per- means forward, in front of, first, stuff like that, and is part of just so many words even when it’s not being a prefix. It’s also the origin for all the words we’re looking at this week, because it’s that prevalent. Seriously, click on that link to the Etymology Online page on per- to see the massive list on the words per- is related to.
 
Pro-
This one shouldn’t be too surprising. Pro- means forward or toward the front, before, in place of, or taking care of. It comes from the classical Latin pro, which has pretty much all those meanings to it. And of course it’s from per-. A flexible word leads to a flexible prefix.
 
Pur-
Pur- isn’t used all that much, only showing up in a few words, like purchase, purpose, and purport. Its origins are Middle English and Anglo French, where it was what’s known as “perfective”, a kind of language form we don’t have in English anymore used to indicate a completed action. Pur- comes from the Vulgar Latin por-, which is from the classical Latin pro. So everything comes full circle.
 
So that’s it for prefixes. I mean, there are still a ton more, but I think we’ve covered all the big ones. Now to decide what I should do next…
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
Dictionary.com
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
University of Texas at Arlington
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Fordham University

May Goals

Time for this again. What was I even supposed to be doing last month?
 
April Goals
1. Work on one of my project ideas. I have so many, it shouldn’t be this hard.
I may have accidentally written 40K in a new WIP. Whoops.
 
2. Update my etymology page. It’s been months!
I did that! Still can’t get rid of those damn extra spaces, though.
 
3. Actually work on those notes! I think we can all guess how this is going to go.
Ha ha, no.
 
That was April. Now for our beloved Three-Milk:
 
1. Add another 40K to the WIP.
 
2. Go back to work on one of my old projects, which still needs to be beta read. If you’re interested, let me know.
 
3. Work on the notes. I know I’m not going to do it, but I can at least not forget about it.
 
So that’s my plan for May. What are you up to this month?

Zoom

Not as exhausting as some of my mom’s other projects, but still. What a pain.

She could not figure out why no one could see her in the Zoom meeting. It took me two seconds to discover she had the camera off.

Language Of Confusion: Prefixes, Part II

More prefixes! Yay!
 
Re-
This one thankfully is less complicated. Re- means again, or undoing, and often it’s just used as an intensive. It showed up in the thirteenth century (I think that’s the first date we’ve had for one of these) from the Old French and classical Latin versions of the prefix. Not much else is known about this one, although I’d like to point out that it’s also red- in front of vowels, so something redact is actually re- + act. Yet it’s not react. Just… just don’t think about it too hard.
 
A-
A- the prefix is really three different prefixes, so we’re starting with confusing right off the bat The first of them is actually related to on, and it’s what’s in front of words like ahead and asleep—although it also can mean of, as in anew, and it can also also be short for ad- (to/toward) and ab- (away). The origin of this a- is unknown, but it is Germanic in some way. The second a- means away—much like the previous a-, and it comes from the classical Latin ab, away or from. The final a- prefix means not or without—like in amoral, you’re without morals. This one is actually Greek in origin, as a- meant not there, and it comes from the Proto Indo European ne-, not. And as I mentioned last week, that’s the origin word for un-. Well, one of the un-s.
 
Apo-
Apo- means of, from, or away from—which means apologetic is literally away from (apo-) collection (-leg), and no, that makes no frigging sense, but whatever. This isn’t about that word. Apo- is from the Greek apo, from, which is from the Proto Indo European root apo-, off or away. Any time a word begins with apo-, it means away from something.
 
Anti-
I don’t think this one is going to be much of a surprise. Anti- means opposed to or against, and is also just ant- in front of vowels. It’s from the Old French anti-, from the classical Latin anti-, from the Greek anti, and those all just mean anti. And it’s from the Proto Indo European… anti. Meaning against. Seriously, this word barely changed over thousands of years and through probably hundreds of languages.
 
Ante-
The almost homophone for anti-, ante- means before or in front of and comes from the classical Latin ante, before. And that word is from… the Proto Indo European anti-. Yes, it’s from the same place as anti-. The only difference is that this one never went through Greek before it came to English.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

From The Spamfiles

Let’s see what stupid things I’ve received this week.

Wait until I explain to them that I’m not gay. That’s going to be an awkward conversation.

So many questions here. What is with that number? Why does it have a lowercase i stuck in there? What the hell is “amazonaws” and why do they think putting that in there makes it more legit???

It’s categorically cleared! I’ve been waiting forever for it.

I laughed way too much at someone with the name of “Flink”. That’s definitely the winning name of the week.

This feels like the digital equivalent of a cut and paste ransom note.

That’s Warren Buffett for you, always giving out money to random people he emails.

Outside Cat

This happens every day. Multiple times. She frantically scratches at the door, desperate to get out, and then…

It is a frigid sixty degrees out. You can’t expect cats to survive in such weather!