prefix
/ˈpriːfɪks/noun, verb
An element placed before a word or stem
From Latin prae- (before) + Latin fīgō (to fix).
Lineage
prae-
fīgō
LatinRomanceGermanicnot directly attestedSelect a stage for details, or drag it
The story
Picture a Roman grammarian physically fastening a little piece of language to the front of a word: that is essentially what Latin praefīgō meant, “fix in front.” Its two parts were prae-, “before,” and fīgō, “I fasten,” a family that still peeks out in fix, affix, suffix, and infix. By the 1640s, English speakers were using prefix as a grammatical noun for the bit attached before a word, while Middle English prefixen had already supplied the verb. So a prefix is not merely “before” something—it is a linguistic thumbtack, stuck onto the front and changing what follows.