Talk:ab-

Latest comment: 11 years ago by Jackwolfroven in topic Faulty Source

Material from WP edit

I've no confidence that my limited familiarity with Wikipedia qualifies me to edit on Wiktionary. But the following markup is the whole of a WP page that i will propose for a Vote for Deletion. Hopefully someone will merge it competantly with the existing entry.


The prefix ab- or abs- is derived from the Latin prefix ab-, which means "off", "away", or "from" and usually expresses removing, separation, or a lower value.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, English words beginning in ab- were originally carried directly through from Old French, as abuse, or appropriated from more modern French, as absorb.

The OED notes that in recent times, following the model of abnormal, some medical terms use ab- to mean "away from", as ab-oral, "away from the mouth".


The prefix ab- is also used to indicate "absolute" in units used in electromagnetism, such as abhenry for inductance , abohm for resistance and abvolt for potential.


--Jerzy 00:45, 2 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Something Else edit

Faulty Source edit

English Etymology 1 is incorrectly stated:

  • **From Old English æf, from Latin ab-, from Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, from), from Sanskrit अप (ápa, away)

The English prefix featured in this article is from Latin ab-, not Old English æf, which instead yielded Modern English of, off.
Furthermore, none of the terms (Old English, Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit) are derived from any other; rather, they are all derived from a common Proto-Indo-European adverbial *h₂epo.
Our source for this etymology is faulty and should not be referenced.
Please note this comment. Jackwolfroven (talk) 22:30, 4 February 2013 (UTC)Reply

Return to "ab-" page.