The prefixes in the Old English language

The prefix ā- was used with the verbal stems and denoted transition into a different state, e.g.: āwacan ‘awake’.

The prefix a-, homonymous to the latter, was used with adverbial stems and had collective meaning, e.g.: ahwær ‘everywhere’ from the word hwær ‘where’.

The prefix be- had the meaning of the concentration of the action around a particular object, e.g.: bethencan ‘to think over’.

The prefix ʒ e- denoted the collective character of the action ʒefera ‘fellow traveler’.

The homonymous prefix ʒ e- used with verbal stems had an aspective meaning and denoted the completion of the action, e.g.: ʒeseon ‘to see (to have seen)’.

The prefix for- was associated with the meaning of destruction or loss, e.g.: forweorthan ‘to perish’.

The prefix mis- expressed negation, e.g.: mislician ‘to dislike’.

The prefix of- intensified the meaning of the verb, e.g.: ofslean ‘to murder’ from the word slean ‘to kill’.

The prefix on- was used to denote bringing back to the previous state, e.g.: onbindan ‘to untie’.

The prefix tō- was used in the structure of the verbs with the meaning of destruction, e.g.: tōbrecan ‘to break’.

The prefix un- expressed negation, e.g.: uncūð ‘unknown’. The prefix wan- also had negative meaning, e.g.: wanhal ‘unhealthy’.

Compound Words

 

The main types of compound words in the Old English language could be formed according to the following patterns:

1) Noun stem + noun stem > noun. For example, as a result of combination of the substantive stems boc- ‘book’ and cræft ‘art’ there appeared the word boc-cræft ‘literature’. The complex word eorth-cræft ‘geography’ has a similar structure, its first element eorth- having the meaning ‘earth’. The word gar-wiga ‘lance-carrier’ is composed of the stems gar- ‘lance’ and wiga ‘warrior’. Complex words of this type are numerous: gimm-stan ‘precious stone’, guð-gewinn ‘competition of warriors’, guð-rinc ‘warrior’, guð-wine ‘companion’, heafod-mann ‘chief’, hyrn-wiga ‘warrior’, leoð-cræft ‘poetry’.

2) Noun stem with a case inflection + noun stem > noun. As the first component of the complex words of this type a case form of the noun (mainly the Genitive case singular or plural) was used. Thus, in the name of the city birmingaham ‘Birmingham’ (which literally means ‘home of Birmings’) the first element birminga- is the form of the Genitive case plural. In the word dæʒes-eaʒe ‘daisy’ the component dæʒes- is the form of the Genitive case singular of the noun dæʒ ‘day’. So the literal meaning of the name of this flower is ‘the eye of the day’.

3) Noun stem + adjective stem > adjective. Thus, the complex word cild-ʒeonʒ ‘childish’ consists of the substantive stem cild- ‘child’ and the adjective stem ʒeonʒ ‘young’. In the word dom-ʒeoru ‘ambitious’ it is easy to differentiate the substantive element dom- ‘dignity, honour’ and the adjective element ʒeoru ‘wishing, eager’. The word ʒold-fah ‘shot with gold’ consists of the stem ʒold- ‘gold’ and fah ‘parti-colored’. Here are some examples that are clear enough: ham-ʒyme ‘one who returned home’, is-ceald ‘ice-cold’, mod-ceariʒ ‘sad’.

4) Adjective stem + noun stem > noun. As examples of the words produced in this pattern we can consider the nouns cwic-seolfor ‘quicksilver, mercury’, ʒod-dæd ‘feat, deed’ (literally: ‘good doing’), halig-dæʒ ‘holiday’ (literally: ‘holy day’). This group also includes such words as neah-ʒebur ‘neighbour’ (literally: ‘living nearby’) and wid-sæ ‘open sea, ocean’ (literally; ‘wide sea’).

5) Adjective stem + noun stem > adjective. Alongside with the nouns formed from adjective and substantive stems there were adjectives produced in the same pattern in Old English. Thus, from the stems fami- ‘foamy’ and heals ‘neck’ the complex adjective fami-heals ‘foaming the waters’ (literally: ‘with foam around the neck’) was produced. From the adjective stem mild- ‘mild’ and the substantive stem heort ‘heart’ the complex adjective mild-heort ‘mild-hearted’ was formed. As a result of connection of the stems stið- ‘strong’ and mod ‘character’ there appeared the word stið-mod ‘brave’.

6) Adjective stem + noun stem + suffix -EDE > adjective. This pattern is different from the ones described above as the connection of the adjective and substantive stems is produced with the help of the suffix - EDE. The complex adjectives of this pattern are usually denoted by the Sanskrit term bahuvrihi. As an example of the bahuvrihi pattern we can consider the word micel-heafdede ‘big-headed’ in which the adjective stem micel- ‘big’ is connected with the substantive stem heaf(o)d ‘head’. The word an-hyrnede ‘one-horned’ is formed in a similar way. We can notice that the bahuvrihi pattern exists in the New English language as well (cf. big-headed, one-eyed, etc.).

7) Noun stem + participle stem > noun. For example, the connection of the substantive stem of Latin origin ceaster- ‘castle’ and the participle buend ‘living’ the word ceaster-buend ‘inhabitant of the castle’ was formed. The complex word made of the substantive stem flett- ‘home’ and the participle sittend – flett-sittend – had the meaning ‘guest’. The word gar-berend had the meaning ‘lance-carrier’ (it was based on the stems gar- ‘lance’ and berend ‘carrying’. Similarly such words were produced as lind-hæbbend ‘shield-carrier’ and sæ-lið ‘mariner’ (literally: ‘traveling on seas’).

8) Verb stem + noun stem > noun. The words produced in this pattern are not numerous. As an example of such a word we can take the noun bæc-hus ‘bakery’ based on the verbal stem BÆC - ‘to bake’ and the substantive stem hus ‘house’.

9) Adverb stem + noun stem > noun. The word of this pattern are very few. One of such words is, for example, inn-gang ‘entrance’ which is based on the adverb stem INN ‘inside’ and the substantive stem gang ‘pass’.

10) Adjective stem + adjective stem > adjective. Among the words of this pattern there are such adjectives as wid-cuð ‘widely known’ and fela - modig ‘brave’.

11) Noun stem + noun stem > adverb. The characteristic feature of the complex words of this pattern is the fact that the second substantive element is usually used in the form of the Dative case plural (with the inflection -um). E.g.: stycce-mælum ‘here and there’ based on the stems stycc- ‘piece’ and mæl ‘time’; drop-mælum ‘drop by drop’ based on the stems drop- ‘drop’ and mæl.

Preposition + noun stem > adverb. Among the words of this pattern we can consider, for example, onweʒ ‘away’ based on the preposition on ‘in’ and the substantive stem weʒ ‘way’; to-eacan ‘in addition’ based on the preposition to ‘to’ and the stem eac ‘addition’.