prefix
verb/pɹiːˈfɪks/
Etymology From Middle English prefixen, from Middle French prefixer, from Latin praefīxus, past participle of praefīgō (“to (fix, fasten, set up) in front”, “to fix on the (end, extremity)”) (from prae- (“before”) + fīgō (“to fix”, “to fasten”, “to affix”)), equivalent to pre- + -fix.
1
To determine beforehand; to set in advance.
- They duly arrived at the prefixed hour.
- But the danger was, that a man can hardly prefix any certaine limits unto his desire[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
1 more example
- It is important to realize that pregivenness or prefixing is a kind of anteriority that does its work in the present; subjects and meanings in part emerge in enuciative co-constitutive moments.2002, Thomas R. West, Signs of Struggle, page 23:
2
To put or fix before, or at the beginning of something; to place at the start.
- His requests for money were usually prefixed by an apology.
- You must prefix the number with the area code.
1 more example
- For the classical ranks, he says, were taken from the nomenclature of the family system (indeed, they are kinship terms as well as political ones), and this arrangement was confused and inelegant. But the Taiping terms are all prefixed with 'T’ien' [translating 天 (Tiān)]—the capital is T’ien-ching [translating 天京 (Tiānjīng)], soldiers are T’ien-ping [translating 天兵], officials are T’ien-kuan [translating 天官]—for the T’ien-wang’s [translating 天王 (Tiānwáng)] authority derives from the T’ien-fu [translating 天父 (Tiānfù)].1964, Joseph R. Levenson, “Taipings Storm the Confucian Heaven”, in Confucian China and Its Modern Fate, volume 2, University of California Press, →OCLC, page 104:
- Derived terms
- prefixable, prefixation, prefixed, unprefixed, prefixer, auto~