arch-

See also: arch, ARCH, ärch, -arch, and arch.

English

Alternative forms

archi-
archo-

Etymology

From Middle English arch-, arche-, from Old English arċe-, ærċe-, erċe- (“arch-”), borrowed from Latin archi-.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɑː(ɹ)t͡ʃ/, /ɑ(ɹ)k/

Prefix

arch-

Chief; primary; principal.
- 2022 November 2, Ed Pilkington, “‘The Trump playbook’: Republicans hint they will deny election results”, in The Guardian‎:
  That an arch-election denier who has been at the forefront of attempts to overturn Biden’s victory should refuse to state openly whether she will abide by the outcome of her own election has set alarm bells ringing.
First; original.
Highest; most extreme.
(augmentative) Intensely, extremely, or exceptionally.

Synonyms

(augmentative, including extreme): super-, supra-, hyper-, ultra-, uber-, macro-, over-, mega-, maxi-, giga-, -zilla, grand
(original or oldest): proto-, ur-

Derived terms

English terms prefixed with arch-

Related terms

-arch

Translations

chief, highest, most extreme

Bulgarian: архи- (arhi-), най- (naj-)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 總 (yue) (zung²), 大 (yue) (daai⁶)
Mandarin: 總／总 (zh) (zǒng-), 大 (zh) (dà-)
Czech: arci- (cs)
Danish: ærke-
Dutch: aarts- (nl)
Faroese: erki-
Finnish: arkki- (fi), peri- (fi)
French: archi- (fr)
German: erz- (de)
Greek: αρχι- (el) (archi-)
Hebrew: ארכי‎ (arkhi)
Hungarian: fő- (hu)
Icelandic: erki-
Irish: ard- (ga)
Japanese: 大 (ja) (dai)
Korean: 대 (ko) (dae)
Luxembourgish: äerz-
Norwegian: erke-
Old Norse: erki-
Polish: arcy- (pl), archi- (pl)
Portuguese: arqui- (pt)
Russian: архи- (ru) (arxi-), сверх- (ru) (sverx-), наи- (ru) (nai-)
Serbo-Croatian: nad-
Spanish: archi- (es), arqui-, arzo-
Swedish: ärke- (sv)
Turkish: baş-
Vietnamese: tổng (vi)
Welsh: arch-

Anagrams

Char, Rach, char, rach

Welsh

Etymology

From Latin archi- or English arch-. Cognate with Cornish argh-.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /arχ/

Prefix

arch-

great, chief, arch-, super-
‎arch- + ‎angel (“angel”) → ‎archangel (“archangel”)
‎arch- + ‎marchnad (“market”) → ‎archfarchnad (“supermarket”)
‎arch- + ‎esgobaeth (“bishopric”) → ‎archesgobaeth (“archbishopric, primacy”)

Derived terms

Welsh terms prefixed with arch-

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	h-prothesis
arch-	unchanged	unchanged	harch-
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “arch-”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies