prothesis

Meaning

Noun

  • The prepending of phonemes at the beginning of a word without changing its morphological structure, as in Spanish esfera from Latin sphaera (without prothesis the word would have become *sfera).
  • a type of preparatory ceremony, part of the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church

Related

Similar words

Opposite words

Origin

  • From Late Latin prothesis, prosthesis, alteration (dropping the ‘s’) from Ancient Greek πρόσθεσις ("addition, augmentation"), (English prosthesis) from προστίθημι, from πρός + τίθημι, from Proto-Indo-European *próti, *préti + *dʰédʰeh₁-.
  • However, often confused for a descendant of the Ancient Greek word πρόθεσις (without the σ), which is instead the source of a different term – see alternative etymology, below.
  • From Ancient Greek πρόθεσις ("a preposing"), from προτίθημι, from πρό + τίθημι, from Proto-Indo-European *pro + *dʰédʰeh₁-.

Modern English dictionary

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