Dis-
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The prefix dis- (also di-, dif-) first appeared in English words in the Middle English period in words borrowed from French (usually as the French des-). It comes from the Latin prefix dis-, which is thought to have come from 'duus' two and thus had the most basic sense of 'two ways' hance 'apart.' It was attached to words of non-Latinate origin as early as 1563 (sush as the now ungrammatical 'disalike')and became a living, productive prefix (though nearly always combined with Latinate roots) by no later than the mid-1600s. It still is a living, productive prefix, although in a limited capacity (mainly science and noncewords).
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[edit] Forms
- *di- (dis- + b-, d-, g-, l-, m-, n-, r-, s-, v-) (examples: digestion, dilation, diminution, direction, diversion). There are no examples for b-, d-, j-, and n- but Latin had dibucinare, diducere, dijungere, and dinumere.
[edit] Effect on following vowel
When attached to a verbal root, prefixes often change the first vowel (whether initial or preceded by a consonant/consonant cluster) of that verb. These phonological changes took place in Latin and usually do not apply to words created (as in Modern Latin) from Latin components since Latin became a 'dead' language. Note: the combination of prefix and following vowel did not always yield the same change. (see examples below at con- + -a-) Also, these changes in vowels are not necessarily particular to being prefixed with dis- (i.e. other prefixes sometimes cause the same vowel change- see con-, ex-).
[edit] French
In nearly all French words of Latin origin, dis- became des-.
[edit] Spanish
In nearly all Spanish words of Latin origin, dis- became des-.
