Signification and uses. The applications of the prefix in French (Provençal, Spanish, Portuguese), and hence in English, are substantially identical with those of the Latin in-, which was used to form verbs. (1) from nouns, with sense ‘to put (something) into or on what is denoted by the noun.’, or ‘to put’ what is denoted by the noun ‘into or on (something)’; (2) from nouns or adjectives, with sense ‘to bring or to come into a certain condition or state, to invest with a certain quality’; (3) from other verbs, with added notion of ‘within’, ‘into’, ‘upon’, or ‘against’, or with merely intensive force. Many Latin or late Latin words of this formation came down into Romanic, and have thence been adapted in English. In Romanic the prefix was extensively applied in the formation of new words, in strict accordance with Latin analogies, exc. that in formations upon verbs the notion of ‘against’ rarely or never occurs. In English the analogy of the many words with en- adapted from Romanic gave rise to the extensive application of the prefix in the formation of English words, its functions being the same as in French. The compounds of en- prefix¹ which have been in general use, or which require special comment, are given in their alphabetical place. The following are examples of those which are merely nonce-words, or of very rare occurrence. (See also em- prefix).