com-prefix

prefix of Latin origin. The archaic form of the preposition which in classical Latin was as a separate word written cum; com- being retained in combination before the labials b, p, m, and before a few words beginning with vowels, as in comes, comit-; the m was assimilated before r as corruptus, in later times also before l as collectus; dropped before vowels generally, h and gn-, as coalescĕre, coercēre, cohabitāre, cognātus; originally, also before n, as cōnātus, cōnivēre, but in later manuscripts and texts assimilated, as connātus, connivēre; before all other consonants com- was changed to con- prefix. But in some English derivatives, com- has taken the place of Latin con- before f, as in comfort. The sense is ‘together, together with, in combination or union’, also ‘altogether, completely’, and hence intensive. It occurs in combinations actually formed in Latin, their derivatives, and analogical extensions. The prefix has become a living English element in the form co- prefix.In Provençal, Spanish, and Old French, com- before m, was regularly reduced to co-, e.g. co-mandement, co-mence, co-mun, and in this form these words were originally adopted in English (cf. col- comb. form, con- prefix). But with the revival of Latin learning, the m was again doubled in spelling in French and thence in English; this scarcely, if at all, affects the pronunciation in an unaccented syllable, except that, when the word is uttered syllabically, or a factitious stress is for the nonce put on the first syllable, this is treated as /kɒm/, or /kɒ/, and not as /kəʊ/; it is here therefore symbolized by /kə/, though in ordinary utterance this is not distinguishable from /kəʊ/, e.g. /kəˈmɪt/ or /kəʊˈmɪt/.Before b, p, Old French had normally cum-, as in cumbatre, cumpagnie; although this was afterwards altered back to the Latin type com-, the original pronunciation remained in English, where its phonetic descendant still survives in comfort, company, compass, etc. But the influence of the spelling in modern times has been constantly to extend the use of /kɒm/ in all such words: /ˈkʌmbæt/ is even now dying out before /ˈkɒmbæt/.