Etymology:  <  classical Latin ar-, variant (by assimilation) of ad-  ad- prefix   used before r-  , as in adrogantia  , arrogantia  , arrogance n.The Latin prefix was reduced in Old French to a-  a- prefix5, which in the 14th cent. was often re-spelt ar-   after Latin, and this was usually the case in English from the 15th cent.; as a result most words from Old French in ar-   are now written arr-  , e.g. arrange v., array v., arrive v.   In the 16th cent. this spelling was extended to words with a-   from other sources (by false analysis): as araise v., areach v., arear v.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1885; most recently modified version published online March 2022).