| 释义 |
▪ I. des-
in obs. words: see dec-, desc-, dess-, dis-.
▪ II. des- prefix
Regular Romanic form of L. dis-, in OIt., Sp., Pg., Pr., OFr.; in mod.Fr. retained (as dés-) before a vowel or silent h (déshabillé), otherwise reduced to dé- (OF. descharge, mod. décharge). In some cases apparently representing a late L. de- ex-, for L. ex-. Partly from the frequent substitution of dis-, des-, for L. dē- in late L. and Romanic (see de- prefix 6), partly through the phonetic reduction of des- to dé- in later French, the two prefixes have in that language largely fallen together under the mod.F. dé-. Early OF. words passed into English with the prefix in the form des- (descharge, ME. descharge); here it was sometimes, in conformity with later OF. pronunciation, reduced to de- (OF. desmembre, demembre, ME. demembre); but usually the s was retained, and the prefix at length changed back to the L. type dis- (discharge, dismembre, also spelt dys-) as was also done to some extent in French itself (descorde, now discorde).
In English, therefore, des- is merely the earlier form of dis- in words from OF., e.g. desarm, desblame, descharge, desclaundre, descolour, desdain, desembogue, desere (= desheir), deserite (disherit), desgyse, deshonour, desinteressed, desjoyne, desjune, desmail, desmay, desmesure, desordein, desordere, desparage, desparple, despend, despense, despeople, desplay, desport, despreve (= disprove), despute, desray, destempre, desturb, destribute, etc. All these have a later form in dis-, under which they are treated in this Dictionary. Only a few words became obsolete before dis- forms appeared. The prefix is exceptionally retained in descant, and it is occasionally found for de- before a vowel, in chemical terms from modern French, as desoxalic, desoxybenzoin, † desoxydate. In despatch, modern var. of dispatch, the spelling des- is not historical, but originated in an 18th c. etymological error.
There are many words beginning with des- in which the s belongs to the root-word, and the prefix is de-, as descry, describe, descend, deserve, despair, despite, despoil, destroy. From confusion of these with words in which des- is the prefix, they also were in late ME. often spelt with dis- (discry, discribe, etc.). And, on the other hand, words in di- followed by s- were sometimes confused with words in dis- prefix, and so also written des- (destinct, destress, etc.). Both these errors have been corrected in the later orthography. |