| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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8. Word Formation: Plurals, Possessives, Affixes, and Compounds
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| § 15. ex- |
| The prefix ex- comes from Latin ex-, e-, meaning “out of, from.” It usually occurs with word roots that come from Latin verbs. Thus combining ex- with the Latin verb tendere, “to stretch,” gives us extend, “to stretch out.” Similarly, in express, ex- combines with the root press, which comes from the verb premere, “to squeeze.” So when we express ourselves, we “squeeze out” our thoughts. When followed by f, ex- becomes ef-, as in efface. Sometimes ex- takes the form of e-, as in emit (from Latin mittere, “to send"). Today ex- only forms new words when it means “former,” and it is always followed by a hyphen: ex-President. | 1 |
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| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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