out-
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English ut-, from Old English ūt- (“out, without, outside”) (also as ūta-, ūtan- (“from or on the outside, without”), as in ūtanweard (“outward, external”)), from Proto-Germanic *ūt- (“out-”). Cognate with Dutch uit-, German aus-, Swedish ut-, Icelandic út-. More at out.
Prefix edit
out-
- External to, on the outside of
- Toward the outside of, away from
- Forms verbs with the sense of surpassing or exceeding the prefixed word. This construction is productive.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- It out-Herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.
- 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 345:
- She was nobody when he married her, barely the daughter of a gentleman; but ever since her being turned into a Churchill she has out-Churchill’d them all in high and mighty claims: but in herself, I assure you, she is an upstart.
- 2016, Noam Chomsky, What Kind of Creatures Are We?, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 124:
- With a few honorable exceptions it out-Descartesed Descartes […]
- Greater than
- Beyond
- The plant's leaves outgrew their box
- Completely
Synonyms edit
- (outside): ex-, exo-, ecto-
- (away from): off-, ab-, apo-, de-, away, off
- (surpassing): (loose sense) supra-
- (greater than): supra-
- (beyond): trans-, para-, hyper-, ultra-, extra-, preter-