In re “re-”

Add comment September 12th, 2008

A general trend in English is the loss of hyphens when forming words with prefixes. It wasn’t too long ago, for example, that words like “today” and “tomorrow” were written “to-day” and “to-morrow.”

Sometimes, however, with “re-” words, a hyphen alters the meaning. For instance, the verb “resign” means “to quit,” but “re-sign” means “to sign again.” Someone who “resigns” is off the team; someone who “re-signs” is back on the team.

Webster’s notes a number of these pairs, although some of them can be a bit of a stretch. Among the better ones are:

“re-coil,” to coil anew; “recoil,” to pull or kick back (recoil in horror, the recoil of a rifle).

“re-cover,” to put a new cover on: “recover,” to regain possession of or get better.

“re-collect,” to gather together again; “recollect,” to remember,

“re-creation,” a new version; “recreation,” play, amusement, relaxation.

“re-dress,” to put clothes on again; “redress,” to make right.

“re-form,” to form again; “reform,” to make better.

“re-pose,” to watch the birdie again or rephrase a question; “repose,” to lie at rest.

“re-strain,” to put back through a strainer or pull a muscle again; “restrain,” to check, suppress, restrict.

And an examaple of pushing it a bit:

“re-ally,” to re-form an alliance; “really” — yes, really.

You could — and should — look it up

5 comments May 20th, 2008

A reader asked about the use of “emplies” in a recent cartoon dialogue balloon. There is no such word, although “imply” came to us from the Old French “emplier.” But its older Latin ancestor is “implicare.”

There are no all-encompassing rules for determining which of the four prefixes, “im-,” “em-,” “en-” or “in-,” is correct in any particular circumstance. Likewise, good luck guessing whether a word should end in “-able” or “-ible.”

Some things just need to be looked up. There is no shame in it. And even if you could memorize all the various permutations of such words, imagine what your brain could do with all the space taken up by that.