A-
Pronunciation
- IPA: /É™/
Origin 1
Usage notes
Different Germanic senses of a- became confused – vaguely “intensive†– and are no longer productive. The Greek sense of “not†(e.g., amoral,asymmetry) remains productive.
“It naturally happened that all these a- prefixes were at length confusedly lumped together in idea, and the resultant a- looked upon as vaguely intensive, rhetorical, euphonic nice-sounding, or even archaic, and wholly otiose pointless.†OED.
From Middle English a- ("up, out, away"), from Old English Ä-, originally *ar-, *or-, from Proto-Germanic *uz- ("out-"), from Proto-Indo-European *uds- ("up, out"). Cognate with Old Saxon Ä-, German er-.
Full definition of a-
Prefix
- (no longer productive) forming verbs with the sense away, up, on, outarise, await
- (no longer productive) forming verbs with the sense of intensified action.abide, amaze
Pronunciation
- IPA: /É™/
Origin 2
Prefix
- (no longer productive) in, on, at; used to show a state, condition, or manner. First attested prior to 1150Brown, Lesley (2003)''apace, afire, aboil
- (no longer productive) In, into. First attested prior to 1150asunder
- In the direction of, or toward. First attested prior to 1150astern, abeam
- (archaic, dialectal) At such a time. First attested prior to 1150Come a-morning we are going hunting.
- (archaic, dialectal) In the act or process of. First attested prior to 1150Come morning, we are going a-hunting.They's asinging a song. He's aheaded to the store.
- 1777, Thomas Arne, A-Hunting We Will Go
- 1780, The Twelve Days of Christmas (song):The twelfth day of Christmas,My true love sent to meTwelve lords a-leaping,…Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,
- circa 1850, Here We Come A-wassailing/Here We Come A-carolingHere we come a-wassailingAmong the leaves so green;Here we come a-wand’ringSo fair to be seen.
- 1939, Alfred Edward Housman, Additional Poems, XIII, lines 6-7:Oh waste no words a-wooingThe soft sleep to your bed;
Pronunciation
- IPA: /É™/
Origin 3
From Middle English variant form of y-, from Old English Ä¡e-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA: /É™/
Origin 4
From Anglo-Norman a-, from Old French e-, from Latin ex-.
Prefix
- (no longer productive) forming words with the sense of wholly, or utterly outFirst attested from around 1150 to 1350.abash
Pronunciation
- US IPA: /ə/, /eɪ/
Origin 5
From Ancient Greek ἀ- (ἀν- immediately preceding a vowel).
Prefix
- Not, without, opposite of.
- 1948 (revised 1952), Robert Graves, The White Goddess, Faber & Faber 1999, page 7:When invited to believe in the Chimaera, the horse-centaurs, or the winged horse Pegasus, all of them straightforward Pelasgian cult-symbols, a philosopher felt bound to reject them as a-zoölogical improbabilities ....
- 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin 2013, page 191:If aroused outside the proper outlet of marriage, lust could range out of control, turning its possessor into an a-feminine monster: that is what happened to fallen women.
Usage notes
Used with stems that begin with consonants except sometimes h. an- is synonymous and is used in front of words that start with vowels and sometimes h.
Urdang, Laurence (1984)
Origin 6
From Middle English, from Middle French a-, from Latin ad ("at").
Prefix
- (no longer productive) Towards; Used to indicate direction, reduction to, increase to, change into, or motion. First attested from around 1150 to 1350.ascend, aspire, amass, abandon, avenue
Usage notes
Used on stems that started with sc, sp, or st, and also used on stems with a French origin.
Used in place of ad-.
Lindberg, Christine A. (2007)
Origin 7
From Latin ab ("of, off, from, away")
Prefix
- (no longer productive) Away from. First attested from around 1150 to 1350.avert, aperient, abridge, assoil
Usage notes
Variation of the prefix ab-, only used when the stem starts with the letter p or v.
Origin 8
- From Middle English a-, o- ("of")
- See a preposition, of
Prefix
- (no longer productive) Of, from. First attested prior to 1150.anew, afresh