co-prefix

of Latin origin. In Latin the preposition com- (which as a separate word was written in classical Latin cum) was shortened to co- before vowels and h, also before gn-, e.g. coalescere, coercēre, coortus cohærēre, cognātus. Partly from the greater syllabic distinctness of this form of the prefix, arising out of the natural break between it and the following vowel, whereby also, on the break-down of the older quantitative system, the o became a long vowel, partly from the readiness with which some compounds of this type, as co-æquālis, co-adjūtor, co-episcopus, co-hæres, co-operātor, co-optāre, were analysed into their elements, co- has come in English to be a living formative, the use of which is no longer restricted to words beginning with a vowel, but extended to all words of analogous kinds, including native English or other words, as well as those from Latin. The general sense is ‘together’, ‘in company’, ‘in common’, ‘joint, -ly’, ‘equal, -ly’, ‘reciprocally’, ‘mutually’. It combines (like Latin com-, con-, co-) with verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns. It is sometimes prefixed to words of Latin origin which are already compounded with com- (con-), as co-connection, -conspirator, -constituent. It occurs also as a variant form of words of Latin origin or type, where the regular form is com-, con-, cor-: e.g. co-centric, co-natural, co-numerary, †co-partment, co-relation, co-rival, co-temporary, co-terminous, and other occasional instances: cf. also co-citizen n., cojoin v., co-mingle v., with concitizen, conjoin, commingle, etc.All the more important of these compounds appear in their alphabetical order as Main words: there follow here examples of compounds of rare occurrence and obvious meaning, or in which the combination is but for the nonce. It is notable how many of these are solely due to Bishop Ken.