alpha privative

American  

noun

1. the prefix a- or, before a vowel, an-, used in Greek and English to express negation or absence.

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alpha privative British  

noun

1. (in Greek grammar) the letter alpha (or an- before vowels) used as a negative or privative prefix. It appears in English words derived from Greek, as in atheist, anaesthetic

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Etymology

Origin of alpha privative

First recorded in 1580–90

Example Sentences

Asomuel, meaning insomnia, was a neologism of the artist's own devising, made up of the Greek alpha privative, the Latin somnus, and the Hebrew el, for termination analogous to that of other spirits' names, such as Gabriel, Raphael, Azrael, etc., reproduced in "Early Work," July 1893.

From Project Gutenberg

Again, Quichua has an 'alpha privative'--thus A-stani means 'I change a thing's place;' for ni or mi is the first person singular, and, added to the root of a verb, is the sign of the first person of the present indicative.

From Project Gutenberg