Carlos-In-Charge t1_ja5674x wrote
Reply to comment by Invisible_Swan in ELI5: Why are native Australians called Aboriginals when in English the prefix "a" usually means "not"- ex Abnormal, atypical, etc? by Invisible_Swan
Until it’s affixed to abnormal
azuth89 t1_ja57r6v wrote
Abnormal is more normal in this sense, oddly enough.
"Ab" as a word of its own means from, but ab-the prefix usually means "away from" for whatever reason.
So...abnormal = away from normal. Perfectly sensible.
Ab origines, as two words, means from the beginning. Okay, that tracks.
Aborigines, one word, should mean away from the origin/beginning. Wait...what? It's like we lost the space over the years and because latin is stupid and arbitrary sometimes should have inverted the meaning but we kept using it.
Invisible_Swan OP t1_ja58m83 wrote
See that's where my logic was coming from. I figured a- on a word that started with a vowel was awkward, hence ab-
azuth89 t1_ja59xbs wrote
That's usually a- and an- like a-theist vs an-esthesia.
A- and an- are greek rooted and mean "not" as in a total nonexistence or rejection of. Like an atheist believes in zero gods.
Ab- is from latin and means away from, but still existing. Like... absent doesn't mean you don't exist, you're just away from here, absorb means to draw something away from where it is now not to destroy it, etc...
Invisible_Swan OP t1_ja5ct7v wrote
This is the stuff I wish they taught me in English class.
azuth89 t1_ja5fyr8 wrote
First time i took the SAT it still had the analogies section. Basically a vocab test and the best way to study for it was prefixes/roots/suffixes.
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