per-

See also: Appendix:Variations of "per"

English

Pronunciation

Audio (US): (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin per and per-.

Prefix

per-

(no longer productive) In verbs: denoting the sense "through", as in perforate.
(no longer productive) In verbs: denoting the sense "thoroughly", as in perfect.
(no longer productive) In verbs: denoting the sense "to destruction", as in pervert.
(no longer productive) In adjectives and adverbs: denoting the sense "extremely", as in perfervid.
(chemistry) Forming nouns and adjectives denoting the maximum proportion of one element in a compound, as in peroxide.
(chemistry) Added to the name of an element in a polyatomic ion to denote the number of atoms of that element (usually four).

Synonyms

(through): trans-, para-, dia-
(thoroughly): para-

Derived terms

English terms prefixed with per-

perchlorination

perchlorobenzoic acid

perchloroethylene

perchloroheteroaromatic

perchloropentacyclodecane

perchromic acid

perfluorocarbon

perfluoroheteroaromatic

perfluoropolyether

perfluorosulfonate

perfluorotributylamine

perhydroisoquinoline

perhydrosqualene

permineralization

peroxodisulphate

persulfuric acid

persulphocyanic acid

pertrochanteric

Related terms

(extremely): pellucid, perfervid

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Old French per (modern French par).

Prefix

per-

(no longer productive) Denoting the sense "by" or "per", as in perchance or perhaps.

Anagrams

EPR, ERP, RPE, Rep, Rep., pre, pre-, rep

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin per-.

Prefix

per-

used to make superlatives of adjectives and adverbs
perguapu
very beautiful

perblancu
very white

perbién
very well

perlloñe
very far

See also

-ísimu

Esperanto

Etymology

Back-formation from per.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /per/
Rhymes: -er
Hyphenation: per

Prefix

per-

denotes that the action expressed by the root becomes a means to attain a goal
‎per- + ‎labori (“to work”) → ‎perlabori (“to earn”)

‎per- + ‎ludi (“to play”) → ‎perludi (“to win”)

‎per- + ‎flati (“to flatter”) → ‎perflati (“to coax”)

Derived terms

Esperanto terms prefixed with per-

French

Etymology

From Latin per-.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pɛʁ/

Prefix

per-

per-

Derived terms

Further reading

“per-”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Hungarian

Etymology

From Latin per (“through”).^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈpɛr]
Hyphenation: per
Rhymes: -ɛr

Prefix

per-

(chemistry) per-

Derived terms

Hungarian nouns prefixed with per-

References

^ Tótfalusi, István. Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára (’A Storehouse of Foreign Words: an explanatory and etymological dictionary of foreign words’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2005. →ISBN

Indonesian

Etymology

Inherited from Malay per-, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *paʀ. Cognate with Tagalog pag-.

comparable to Proto-Austroasiatic *p-, *pC- (“causative prefix”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pər-/
Hyphenation: pêr

Prefix

pêr (non-active/imperative/basic per-, active memper-, passive diper-)

causative voice imperative mood intransitive verb prefix of a transitive verb
‎per- + ‎buat (“to do [something]”) → ‎perbuat (“do [something]”)
causative voice imperative mood intransitive verb prefix of an adjective
‎per- + ‎besar (“big”) → ‎perbesar (“make bigger something big”)
imperative mood transitive verb of a noun: treat the object as [base], take the object as [base]
‎per- + ‎istri (“wife”) → ‎peristri (“take as wife, marry”)
nominal patient used to form nouns from verbs conjugated with ber-
‎per- + ‎ajar (“to teach”) → ‎pelajar (“learner”)

‎per- + ‎kerja (“to work”) → ‎pekerja (“worker”)
denominator of a fraction
‎per- + ‎dua (“two”) → ‎perdua

Usage notes

When this prefix is combined with the prefixes meng-, di-, ter-, and ke-, the imperative aspect is lost
pe- is used in word with initial /r/ or word with final /-ər.C-/ in first syllable
- However, some words that don't have /-ər.C-/ used this suffix inconsistently (per- + desa + -an > pedesaan).
pel- is only used in the words ajar and unjur together with their derivatives.
Verbs with the prefix per- with an adjective stem are classified as causative verbs which cause the object to be ranked higher than its previous state. The difference with verbs with the suffix -kan which are also causative is that verbs with the suffix -kan cause the object to become what is described by the adjective stem.

Derived terms

Further reading

“per-” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *peri-. Related to per (“through”).

Prefix

per-

Used to make adjectives or verbs that are "very" something.
magnus (“great, large”) → permagnus (“very great, very large”)

multī (“many”) → permultī (“very many”)
Used to form verbs that are intensive or completive, conveying the idea of doing something all the way through or entirely.

Derived terms

Latin terms prefixed with per-

See also

Malay

Pronunciation

(Johor-Riau)
- (with vowel-initial stem) IPA^(key): [pə.r-]
- (with consonant-initial stem) IPA^(key): [pə(r)-]
(Baku)
- (with vowel-initial stem) IPA^(key): [pə.r-]
- (with consonant-initial stem) IPA^(key): [pər-]
Hyphenation: per-

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *paʀ. Cognate with Tagalog pag-.

comparable to Proto-Austroasiatic *p-, *pC- (“causative prefix”).

Prefix

per- (Jawi spelling ڤر-, formal active memper-, 3rd person passive diper-)

(with nouns) Gives a meaning of using something or someone as the base word.
‎per- + ‎alat (“tool”) → ‎peralat (“to use as a tool”)
Combines with suami or isteri to give a meaning of making someone become the base word.
‎per- + ‎suami (“husband”) → ‎persuami (“to take someone as one's husband”)
(with adjectives) Gives a meaning of making something become more of the base word.
‎per- + ‎besar (“big”) → ‎perbesar (“to make something bigger”)
Combines with the function word oleh to take a meaning of "to get" or "to acquire".
‎per- + ‎oleh (“big”) → ‎peroleh (“to acquire”)
Forms the agent noun of some verbs that that take the ber- prefix.
‎per- + ‎buru (berburu) (“to hunt”) → ‎perburu (“hunter”)

Usage notes

With words with initial /r/ and with the word kerja, the prefix is used in the form pe- so that:
‎per- + ‎ramai (“many”) → ‎peramai (“to attack in a group”)

‎per- + ‎kerja (“work”) → ‎pekerja (“worker”)
As an exception, with the word ajar, the prefix is used in the form pel- so that:
‎per- + ‎ajar (“teach”) → ‎pelajar (“student”)
Causative verbs with the prefix per- with an adjective stem differ from their counterparts with the suffixes -kan and -i in that the former verb takes the meaning of 'making something become greater in its quality of the stem adjective' while the latter verbs take the meaning of 'making something acquire the quality of the stem adjective'. Using the adjective baik (“good”) as an example, we get:
‎per- + ‎baik → ‎perbaik (“to improve”)

‎baik + ‎-kan → ‎baikkan (“to fix”)

‎baik + ‎-i → ‎baiki (“to fix”)
Although proscribed by the DBP, this prefix is often used alongside the -kan suffix to give a benefactive meaning so that a word like perbaik (“to improve”) would often be used in the form perbaikkan instead.

Descendants

Indonesian: per-

Etymology 2

From Proto-Austronesian *paR- (“divide into x (x = numeral)”).

Prefix

per- (Jawi spelling ڤر-, alternative form per)

Divided by.
‎per- + ‎tiga (“three”) → ‎pertiga (“divided by three”)

satu pertiga ― one divided by three

Descendants

Indonesian: per-

Derived terms

Malay terms prefixed with per-

References

Nik Safiah Karim, Abdul Hamid Mahmood, Farid M. Onn, Hashim Haji Musa (2015) “7.3.2.1 (v) Awalan mempeR-”, in Tatabahasa Dewan‎^[1] (in Malay), pages 179–181

Further reading

“per-” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.
Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen; et al. (2023) “*paR-₂”, in the CLDF dataset from The Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (2010–), →DOI

Spanish

Prefix

per-

per-

Derived terms

Spanish terms prefixed with per-

Further reading

“per-”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

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