re-
English
Etymology
From Middle English re-, from Old French re-, from Latin re-, red- (“back; anew; again; against”), of uncertain origin but conjectured by Watkins to be from Proto-Indo-European *wret-, a metathetic alteration of *wert- (“to turn”). Displaced native English ed-, eft-, a-, with-/wither-, gain-/again-.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɹiː/, /ɹɪ/, /ɹə/
Prefix
re-
- again, anew
- a completive or intensification of the base; up, a-, out
- back, backward
Usage notes
- The pronunciation varies depending on the word, with /ɹiː/, /ɹɪ/ (some pronunciations), /ɹɛ/ found in words like replay, resist and revolution, respectively.
- The hyphen is not normally included in words formed using this prefix, except when the absence of a hyphen would make the meaning unclear. Hyphens are used in the following cases:
- Sometimes in new coinages and nonce words.
- stir and re-stir the mixture
- When the word that the prefix is combined with begins with a capital letter.
- re-Christianise
- When the word that the prefix is combined with begins with another re-.
- re-record
- In British usage, when the word that the prefix is combined with begins with e.
- re-entry (North American: reentry)
- When the word formed is identical in form to another word in which re- does not have any of the senses listed above.
- The chairs have been re-covered (covered again)
- The chairs have been recovered (obtained back)
- Sometimes in new coinages and nonce words.
- A dieresis may be used instead of a hyphen, as in reëntry. This usage is now rare, but extant; see dieresis: orthography for examples and discussion.
- re- is highly productive, to the point of being almost grammaticalized — almost any verb can have re- applied, especially in colloquial speech. Notable exceptions to this include all forms of be and the modal verbs can, should, etc. When used productively, it is always pronounced /ɹiː/.
Synonyms
- (again): ana-
Derived terms
Translations
|
See also
- again
- re
- repeat
References
- “re-”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Anagrams
- 'er, -'er, -er, E-R, E. R., E.R., ER, er, er.
Catalan
Etymology
From Latin re-.
Prefix
re-
- re- (again)
- re- + fer (“to do”) → refer (“to redo”)
- Intensifier for adjectives and adverbs.
- re- + vell (“old”) → revell (“very old”)
- Synonym: -íssim
- great-, grand- (used to denote the removal of one generation)
- re- + nebot (“nephew”) → renebot (“grandnephew”)
- Synonym: bes-
Derived terms
Further reading
- “re-” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “re-”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
- “re-” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “re-” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Chuukese
Prefix
re-
- (inflected as a noun) with
- (subject marker for tense modifying adverbs) they
Esperanto
Etymology
From Latin re-.
Prefix
re-
- indicates repetition, again
- indicates a return to previous state, back
- indicates an action performed reciprocally, back (e.g., to hit back, to talk back)
Derived terms
French
Etymology
From Latin re-.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʁə/
Audio (file)
Prefix
re-
- re-
- re- + marcher (“to function”) → remarcher (“to function again”)
Usage notes
This is only used when the stem starts with a consonant; otherwise, ré- or r- are used.
Derived terms
See also
- r-
German
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʁe/
Audio (file)
Prefix
re-
- re-
Derived terms
Hungarian
Etymology
From Latin re- (“again; back”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈrɛ]
Prefix
re-
- indicates repetition, again
- indicates a return to previous state, back
Derived terms
Interlingua
Etymology
From Latin re-.
Prefix
re-
- back, backwards
- again; prefix added to various words to indicate an action being done again, or like the other usages indicated above under English.
Derived terms
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin re-. The prefix re- is borrowed from Latin, while the variant ri- is inherited from Latin.[1]
Prefix
re-
- re-
- Synonym: ri-
Usage notes
- The prefix re- normally replaces ri- before words beginning with i, for euphonic reasons.
Derived terms
References
- Migliorini, Bruno; Aldo Duro (1950) Prontuario etimologico della lingua italiana (in Italian), Paravia
Latin
Etymology
The Latin prefix rĕ- is from Proto-Italic *wre (“again”), which has a parallel in Umbrian re-, but its further etymology is uncertain (OED).While it carries a general sense of "back" or "backwards", its precise sense is not always clear, and its great productivity in classical Latin has the tendency to obscure its original meaning.
Watkins proposes a metathesis of Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”), while de Vaan suggests Proto-Indo-European *ure- (“back”), which may be found in Proto-Slavic *rakъ (“crayfish, lobster”) (tentatively, in an original sense *“looking backwards”) and Albanian rrë- (“back”, preverb), unless the latter is borrowed from Latin.
Prefix
re-
- back, backwards
- again; prefix added to various words to indicate an action being done again, or like the other usages indicated above under English.
Usage notes
The prefix anciently also occurs in the form red-, where the -d- is a remnant of the ancient characteristic of the ablative, e.g. in red-do, and with a compositional -i- in redi-vivus. This feature is shared with the preposition se- (originally identical with the conjunction sed), and also in prod-, antid-, postid- (see Lewis & Short, A Latin Dictionary, 1897, s.v. "re" and "D").
The -d- is found before vowels and h, but in later Latin is dropped, as in e.g. reaedifico, reinvito.Assimilation of the d before consonants produced the forms relligio, relliquiae, reccido; and the suppression of the d may account for the frequent lengthening of the e by poets in rēduco, rēlatum.
Derived terms
Descendants
- Catalan: re-
- → English: re-
- French: re-, ré-, r-
- Galician: re-
- Interlingua: re-
- Italian: re-, ri-
- Norman: re-, èr-
- Occitan: re-
- Picard: ar-
- Portuguese: re-
- Romanian: ră-, re-
- Spanish: re-
Middle French
Prefix
re-
- re- (again; once more)
Norman
Alternative forms
- èr-
Etymology
From Old French re-, from Latin re-.
Prefix
re-
- re-
Derived terms
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
From Latin re-.
Prefix
re-
- re-
References
- “re-” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
From Latin re-.
Prefix
re-
- re-
References
- “re-” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Occitan
Etymology
From Latin re-.
Prefix
re-
- re-
Derived terms
Old French
Prefix
re-
- re- (again; once more)
Polish
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin re-.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /rɛ/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ɛ
- Syllabification: re
Prefix
re-
- re- (again, anew)
- re- (back, backward)
Derived terms
Further reading
- re- in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- re- in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Portuguese
Etymology
From Old Portuguese re-, from Latin re-.
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˌʁe./
Prefix
re-
- re- (forms verbs indicating that the action is being done again)
- re- + fazer (“to do”) → refazer (“to redo”)
Derived terms
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin re-. The form ră- only appears in a few inherrited words.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /re/
Prefix
re-
- re-
Spanish
Etymology 1
From Latin re-.
Prefix
re-
- again
- re- + construir → reconstruir
- backwards
- re- + fluir → refluir
- opposition
- re- + pugnar → repugnar
Etymology 2
Of Proto-Celtic origin, cognate with Irish ró- (“very”). (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)
Prefix
re-
- Can be used with adjectives to form a superlative.
- Synonyms: muy, -ísimo
- re- + bueno (“good”) → rebueno (“great”)
- re- + chulo (“cute”) → rechulo (“very cute”)
Derived terms
- rete-, requete-, recontra-
- re
Derived terms
- Spanish terms prefixed with re-
Further reading
- “re-”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Swedish
Prefix
re-
- re-; doing something again
- Synonyms: åter-, om-
Derived terms
Anagrams
- -er, er, er-