a-

From the Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not, without”).

a-

1. Used to form taxonomic names indicating a lack of some feature that might be expected

From Middle English a- (“up, out, away”), from Old English ā-, originally *ar-, *or-, from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out-”), from Proto-Indo-European *uds- (“up, out”). Cognate with Old Saxon ā-, German er-.

• IPA^(key): /ə/

a-

1. (no longer productive) forming verbs with the sense away, up, on, out

   arise, await

2. (no longer productive) forming verbs with the sense of intensified action.

   abide, amaze

• A proclitic form of preposition a; from Old English an (“on”)
• See a (preposition, on, to, in, etc.)

• IPA^(key): /ə/

a-

1. (rare or no longer productive) in, on, at; used to show a state, condition, or manner. Also passing into sense 2. [First attested prior to 1150][1]

   apace, afire, aboil, a-bling

2. (no longer productive) In, into. Also passing into sense 5. [First attested prior to 1150][1]

   asunder

3. In the direction of, or toward. [First attested prior to 1150][1]

   astern, abeam

4. (archaic, dialectal) At such a time. [First attested prior to 1150][1]

   Come a-morning we are going hunting.

5. (archaic, dialectal) In the act or process of. Being conflated with the next definition, a- is used in some dialects to indicate any participle. [First attested prior to 1150][1]
   • 1777, Thomas Arne, A-Hunting We Will Go
   • 1780, The Twelve Days of Christmas:

     The twelfth day of Christmas,

     My true love sent to me

     Twelve 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-caroling

     Here we come a-wassailing

     Among the leaves so green;

     Here we come a-wand’ring

     So fair to be seen.

   • 1939, Alfred Edward Housman, Additional Poems, XIII, lines 6-7:

     Oh waste no words a-wooing

     The soft sleep to your bed;

   • 1964, Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are a-Changin' " (recorded 1963, released 1964):

     The order is rapidly fadin'

     And the first one now will later be last

     For the times they are a-changin'

   • circa 1970, bumper sticker:[2]

     If the van’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.

From Middle English a-, a variant form of y-, from Old English ġe-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“with”).

• i-

• IPA^(key): /ə/

a-

1. Obsolete form of y-. Archaic and Dialectal. In dialect, it is sometimes conflated with sense 5 of the previous definition, and is used as a general indicator of a participle. [First attested around 1150 to 1350 (Middle English).][1]

   aware, alike

From Anglo-Norman a-, from Old French e-, from Latin ex-.

• IPA^(key): /ə/

a-

1. (no longer productive) forming words with the sense of wholly, or utterly out [First attested from around 1150 to 1350.][1]

   abash

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν- (an-) immediately preceding a vowel).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ə/, /eɪ/

a-

1. Not, without, opposite of.

   amoral, asymmetry, atheism, asexual, acyclic

   • 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, [female lust] could range out of control, turning its possessor into an a-feminine monster: that is what happened to fallen women.

• This prefix is referred to as alpha privative.
• 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.[3]

From Middle English a-, from Middle French a-, from Latin ad (“towards”).

a-

1. (no longer productive) Towards; Used to indicate direction, reduction to, increase to, change into, or motion. [First attested from around 1150 to 1350.][1]

   ascend, aspire, amass, abandon, avenue

• Used on stems that started with sc, sp, or st, and also used on stems with a French origin.
• Used in place of ad-.[4]

From Latin ab (“of, off, from, away”)

a-

1. (no longer productive) Away from. [First attested from around 1150 to 1350.][1]

   avert, aperient, abridge, assoil[3]

• Variation of the prefix ab-, only used when the stem starts with the letter p or v. [3]

From Middle English a-, o- (“of”)

• See a (preposition, of)

a-

1. (no longer productive) Of, from. [First attested prior to 1150.][1]

   anew, afresh, athirst[3]

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.

“[I]t 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.

• “a-” in Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors, The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2002, →ISBN, page 1.
• “a-” in Christine A. Lindberg, editor, The Oxford College Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Spark Publishing, 2002, →ISBN, page 1.
• Laurence Urdang (editor), The Random House College Dictionary (Random House, 1984 [1975], →ISBN), page 1
• “a-” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

a-

1. prefix attached to words relating to the mouth, such as the names of languages

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-).

a-

1. a- (not, without)

   ‎a- + ‎moral (“moral”) → ‎amoral (“amoral”)

From Latin ad (“towards”).

a-

1. Used to make verbs from adjectives and nouns

   ‎a- + ‎feble (“weak”) → ‎afeblir (“to weaken”)

   ‎a- + ‎sabor (“taste”) → ‎assaborir (“to taste”)

• “a-” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “a-” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “a-” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

a- (after another prefix -sa-, before vowels am-, class III first-person singular)

1. the indirect object of an active transitive verb

   to me, for me

2. the subject of an intransitive affective verb

   I

3. the direct object of a small set of transitive verbs mostly dealing with affect, communication and intimacy

   me

4. indicates possession of a noun

   my

a-

1. a-, un- (not)
2. A- (atomic, nuclear)

   Synonyms: atom-, A-

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν- (an-) immediately preceding a vowel).

• IPA^(key): /aː/

• Audio

  (file)

a-

1. a-: Not, without, opposite of.

• an-

a-

1. (in loanwords) non-, un-

   Synonym: epä-

• IPA^(key): /a/

From Old French a-, from Latin ad-.

a-

1. A prefix forming words, especially verbs, that denote entering a state, making progress toward a goal, or the like.

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν- (an-) immediately preceding a vowel; generalized from the many Latin borrowings using this prefix.

a-

1. a-, non-, -less.

• “a-” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• IPA^(key): /a/

• Audio

  (file)

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν- (an-) immediately preceding a vowel).

a-

1. a- (not, without, opposite of)

• a- in Duden online

From Latin ad-.

a-

1. ad- (indicating direction)

The Italian prefix a- often reduplicates the following consonant (syntactic gemination, raddoppiamento fonosintattico). The actual forms usually will be ab- (in abbracciare), ac- (in accorrere), ad- (in addestrare), al- (in allargare) etc.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-).

a-

1. a- (indicating lack or loss)

   Synonym: an-

ā-

1. Alternative form of ab-

Used before bilabial voiced consonants: b-, m- and v-.

From ad (“towards”)

a-

1. (Before a word beginning with sc, sp or st) Alternative form of ad-

   ‎a- + ‎scandere (“climb”) → ‎ascendere (“climb up, go up; rise, spring up”)

   ‎a- + ‎scrībere (“write”) → ‎ascrībere (“state in writing, add in writing; insert; appoint, enroll, enfranchise, reckon, number”)

   ‎a- + ‎spīrāre (“breathe”) → ‎aspīrāre (“breathe or blow upon; am favorable to, assist, favor, aid; aspire or desire (to); approach, come near (to)”)

   ‎a- + ‎specere (“observe, look at”) → ‎aspicere (“look at or towards, behold; regard, respect; observe, notice; examine, inspect; consider, ponder”)

   ‎a- + ‎stringere (“press, tighten, compress”) → ‎astringere (“draw close, bind or tie together; tighten, contract; check, restrain; oblige, necessitate”)

   ‎a- + ‎struere (“compose, construct, build; ready, prepare; place, arrange”) → ‎astruere (“build near or to a thing, erect; build on, heap; build an additional structure”)

Via other European languages, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν- (an-) immediately preceding a vowel).

• IPA^(key): [a]

a-

1. Not, not having, without, opposite of.

   ‎a- + ‎seksuāls → ‎aseksuāls

a-

1. someone's, people's

This prefix is often used as a neutral possessive pronoun to make the citation forms of inalienable nouns: amá (“someone's mother”), akʼos (“someone's neck”), ajáád (“someone's leg”), ajááʼ (“someone's ear”), akʼéí (“someone's kin”). The alternative is to use the prefix ha- (“one's”) or bi- (“his/her/its/their”) to make these dictionary forms.

• á-
• ał-
• ahił-

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gá-.

a- (medial wa-)

1. they; class 6 subject concord.

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gáá-.

a-

1. of; class 6 possessive concord.

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not, without”).

a-

1. a- (not, without)

• “a-” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “a-” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not, without”).

a-

1. a- (not, without)

• “a-” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From an earlier form ar-, from Proto-Germanic *uz-. Cognate with Old High German ar-, ir- (German er-).

• IPA^(key): /ɑː/

ā-

1. forming words with the sense from, away, off, out, e.g. āniman

• Middle English: a-
  • English: a-

From Latin ad, which was often reduced to a- in compounds.

a-

1. indicating movement towards something
2. (by extension) indicating a change of state
3. intensifying prefix
4. Alternative form of es-

a- (class A infixed pronoun)

1. him (triggers eclipsis)
2. it (triggers lenition)

This form merges with the prefixes ro-, no-, di-, to-, fo-, ar-, and imm- to form ra-, na-, da-, da-, fa-, ara-, imma- respectively. It disappears after the particle ní (“not”), its only trace being the mutation it causes (eclipsis in the case of the masculine, lenition in the case of the neuter), thus ní cara (does not love) vs. ní chara (does not love it), ní ben (does not strike) vs. ní mben (does not strike him).

From an earlier form ar-, from Proto-Germanic *uz-. Cognate with Old English a-, Old High German ar-, ir- (German er-).

• IPA^(key): /ɑː/

ā-

1. forming words with the sense from, away, out, off, e.g. āniman

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gá-.

a- (medial wa-)

1. they; class 6 subject concord.

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν- (an-) immediately preceding a vowel), from Proto-Indo-European *n̥- (“un-, not”), zero-grade form of *ne (“not”). Doublet of nie.

• IPA^(key): /a/

a-

1. forming words with the sense of negation

   ‎a- + ‎społeczny → ‎aspołeczny

• a- in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• IPA^(key): /ˌa/

From Old Portuguese a-.

a-

1. added to adjective X, forms verbs meaning to make/turn X

   a- + vermelho (“red”) + -ar → avermelhar (“to redden”)

   a- + baixo (“low”) + -ar → abaixar (“to lower”)

2. added to noun X, forms verbs meaning to cause or make X or to cause something to have X

   a- + pavor (“dread”) + -ar → apavorar (“to frighten”)

   a- + fama (“fame”) + -ar → afamar (“to make famous”)

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-), from Proto-Indo-European *n̥-.

a-

1. a- (not; without)

   Synonym: in-

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν- (an-) immediately preceding a vowel), from Proto-Indo-European *n̥- (“un-, not”), zero-grade form of *ne (“not”). Doublet of ne.

a- (Cyrillic spelling а-)

1. Prefix prepended to words to denote a negation, deprivation or absence of a property denoted by base word.

   • ‎a- + ‎sȍcijālan → ‎ȁsocijālan
   • ‎a- + ‎simètrija → ‎asimètrija
   • ‎a- + ‎brahija → ‎abrahija

   Synonyms: bez-, ne-

• “a-” in Hrvatski jezični portal

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gá-.

a- (medial wa-)

1. they; class 6 subject concord.

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gáá-.

a-

1. of; class 6 possessive concord.

a-

1. Class 6 relative concord.

From Latin ad-.

a-

1. A prefix forming words, especially verbs, that denote entering a state, making progress toward a goal, or the like.

• en-

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν- (an-) immediately preceding a vowel; generalized from the many Latin borrowings using this prefix.

a-

1. a-, non-, -less

From Proto-Bantu *à-.

a- (medial ka-)

1. he, she, it; class 1 subject concord, used in the subjunctive and potential mood.

• u- (in other cases)

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gá-.

a- (medial wa-)

1. they; class 6 subject concord.

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gáá-.

a-

1. of; class 6 possessive concord.

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gá-.

a- (medial wa-)

1. they; class 6 subject concord.

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gáá-.

a-

1. of; class 6 possessive concord.

a-

1. Class 6 relative concord.

From Proto-Nguni *ka-, from Proto-Bantu *nkà-.

a-

1. not

Used in the indicative mood, prefixed to the subject concord.

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *à-.

a- (medial ka-)

1. he, she, it; class 1 subject concord, used in the subjunctive and potential mood.

• u- (in other cases)

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gá-.

a- (medial wa-)

1. they; class 6 subject concord.

From Proto-Nguni *á-, from Proto-Bantu *gáá-.

a-

1. of; class 6 possessive concord.

a-

1. Class 6 relative concord.

From Proto-Nguni *ka-, from Proto-Bantu *nkà-.

a-

1. not

Used in the indicative mood, prefixed to the subject concord.

• ka-

a-

1. Alternative form of ma- (hortative)

• C. M. Doke; B. W. Vilakazi (1972), “a-”, in Zulu-English Dictionary, →ISBN: “a-”