Prefix

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prefix \Pre*fix"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Prefixed}; p. pr. & vb.
     n. {Prefixing}.] [L. praefixus, p. p. of praefigere to fix or
     fasten before; prae before + figere to fix: cf. F. pr['e]fix
     fixed beforehand, determined, pr['e]fixer to prefix. See
     Fix.]
     [1913 Webster]


     1. To put or fix before, or at the beginning of, another
        thing; as, to prefix a syllable to a word, or a condition
        to an agreement.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To set or appoint beforehand; to settle or establish
        antecedently. [Obs.] " Prefixed bounds. " --Locke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And now he hath to her prefixt a day. --Spenser.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prefix \Pre"fix\, n. [Cf. F. pr['e]fixe.]
     That which is prefixed; esp., one or more letters or
     syllables combined or united with the beginning of a word to
     modify its signification; as, pre- in prefix, con- in
     conjure.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  prefix
       n : an affix that added in front of the word
       v : attach a prefix to; "prefixed words" [ant: {suffix}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  137 Moby Thesaurus words for "prefix":
     IC analysis, accidence, add, adjoin, affix, affixation,
     agglutinate, allomorph, allonge, annex, anteriority, append,
     appendix, attach, avant-propos, bold front, bound morpheme,
     brave face, brave front, breakthrough, burden, coda, codicil,
     commentary, complicate, conjoin, conjugation, cutting, declension,
     decorate, derivation, difference of form, display, enclitic,
     encumber, envoi, epilogue, exordium, facade, face, facet, facia,
     fore, forefront, foreground, forehand, foreland, forepart,
     forequarter, foreside, foreword, formative, free form, front,
     front elevation, front man, front matter, front page, front view,
     frontage, frontal, frontier, frontispiece, glue on, head, heading,
     hitch on, immediate constituent analysis, infix, infixation,
     inflection, innovation, interlineation, interpolation, introduce,
     introduction, join with, lap, leap, marginalia, morph, morpheme,
     morphemic analysis, morphemics, morphology, morphophonemics, note,
     obverse, ornament, overture, paradigm, paste on, plus, postfix,
     postscript, postulate, preamble, preface, prefixation, prefixture,
     preliminary, prelude, premise, presupposition, priority, proclitic,
     proem, prolegomena, prolegomenon, prolepsis, prologize, prologue,
     proscenium, protasis, put with, radical, rider, root, saddle with,
     scholia, slap on, stem, subjoin, suffix, suffixation, superadd,
     superpose, tack on, tag, tag on, tail, theme, unite with, verse,
     voluntary, window dressing, word-formation
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  prefix
       
          1.  The standard metric prefixes used in the {Systčme
          International} (SI) conventions for scientific measurement.
       
          Here are the SI magnifying prefixes, along with the
          corresponding binary interpretations in common use:
       
           prefix abr decimal  binary
       
           yocto-     1000^-8
           zepto-     1000^-7
           atto-      1000^-6
           femto-  f  1000^-5
           pico-   p  1000^-4
           nano-   n  1000^-3
           micro-  *  1000^-2          * Abbreviation: Greek mu
           milli-  m  1000^-1
       
           kilo- 	 k  1000^1  1024^1 = 2^10 = 1,024
           mega- 	 M  1000^2  1024^2 = 2^20 = 1,048,576
           giga- 	 G  1000^3  1024^3 = 2^30 = 1,073,741,824
           tera- 	 T  1000^4  1024^4 = 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776
           peta- 	    1000^5  1024^5 = 2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624
           exa-  	    1000^6  1024^6 = 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
           zetta-     1000^7  1024^7 = 2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424
           yotta-     1000^8  1024^8 = 2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176
       
          "Femto" and "atto" derive not from Greek but from Danish.
       
          The abbreviated forms of these prefixes are common in
          electronics and physics.
       
          When used with bytes of storage, these prefixes usually denote
          multiplication by powers of 1024 = 2^10 (K, M, and G are
          common in computing).  Thus "MB" stands for megabytes (2^20
          bytes).  This common practice goes against the edicts of the
          {BIPM} who deprecate the use of these prefixes for powers of
          two.  The formal SI prefix for 1000 is lower case "k"; some,
          including this dictionary, use this strictly, reserving upper
          case "K" for multiplication by 1024 (KB is thus "kilobytes").
       
          Also, in data transfer rates the prefixes stand for powers of
          ten so, for example, 28.8 kb/s means 28,800 bits per second.
       
          In speech, the unit is often dropped so one may talk of "a 40K
          salary" (40000 dollars) or "2M of disk space" (2*2^20 bytes).
       
          The accepted pronunciation of the initial G of "giga-" was
          once soft, /ji'ga/ (like "gigantic"), but now the hard
          pronunciation, /gi'ga/, is probably more common.  [Is this
          true of Commonwealth countries?]
       
          Confusing 1000 and 1024 (or other powers of 2 and 10 close in
          magnitude) - for example, describing a memory in units of 500K
          or 524K instead of 512K - is a sure sign of the {marketroid}.
          For example, 3.5" {microfloppies} are often described as
          storing "1.44 MB".  In fact, this is completely specious.  The
          correct size is 1440 KB = 1440 * 1024 = 1474560 bytes.  Alas,
          this point is probably lost on the world forever.
       
          In 1993, hacker Morgan Burke proposed, to general approval on
          {Usenet}, the following additional prefixes: groucho (10^-30),
          harpo (10^-27), harpi (10^27), grouchi (10^30).  This would
          leave the prefixes zeppo-, gummo-, and chico- available for
          future expansion.  Sadly, there is little immediate prospect
          that Mr. Burke's eminently sensible proposal will be ratified.
       
          2.  Related to the {prefix notation}.
       
          (2003-05-06)