Revision 141764529 of "Sub-" on enwiki

{{Not verified|date=February 2007}}

The English [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] [[sub-]] first appeared in the [[Middle English]] period and seems to have been borrowed directly from [[Classical Latin|Latin]]{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, although it previously existed in words borrowed from [[Old French]].  In Latin it was both a prefix and a [[preposition]]. Meanings found in English include:
* "under, beneath" (examples: [[subterranean]], [[submarine]])
* "subsidiary, secondary" (example: [[subplot]])
* "almost, nearly" (example: [[subhuman]])
* (a few usages) "similar to but smaller": [[submachine gun]], [[subnotebook]]

==Forms==
Its [[sandhi]] variant forms are:
* [[assimilation (linguistics)|Assimilation]]:
**sub + c → succ- (example [[succession]])
**sub + f → suff- (example [[suffer]])
**sub + g → sugg- (example [[suggestion]])
**sub + p → supp- (example [[support]])
**sub + r → surr- (example [[resurrection]])
* [[Elision]]:
**sub (before s + another consonant) → su- (example [[suspect]])

[[Category:Prefixes|List of English prefixes]]