| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
|
8. Word Formation: Plurals, Possessives, Affixes, and Compounds
|
| § 54. under- |
| The prefix under-, which can be traced back to Old English, has essentially the same meaning as the preposition under. For example, in words such as underbelly, undercurrent, underlie, and undershirt, under- denotes a position beneath or below. Under- also frequently conveys incompleteness or falling below a certain standard. Some examples are undercharge, underdeveloped, underestimate, and underfeed. Note that in this sense words beginning with under often have counterparts beginning with over-: overcharge, overestimate. | 1 |
|
|
|
| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
