† or-prefix

Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian or- , ur- , Middle Dutch or- , oor- (Dutch oor- ), Old Saxon ur- , or- (Middle Low German ōr- ), Old High German ur- (Middle High German ur- , German ur- ), Old Icelandic ør- , Gothic us- , ur- , uz- , cognate with the preposition Old High German ur , Old Icelandic ōr , Old Swedish or , ur (Swedish ur ), Gothic us out, out of; further etymology uncertain. Old English or- was the stressed form of the prefix, occurring in nominal compounds; the unstressed form (in verbal compounds) was in Old English a- (earlier ar- , surviving only in aræfnan to perform; compare a- prefix¹), to which correspond Middle Dutch er- (Dutch er- ), Old Saxon a- (Middle Low German er- ), Old High German er- , ar- , ir- (Middle High German er- , German er- ). For examples of formations of each type see nominal and verbal forms s.v. ordeal n.Frequent in Old English, retained in a few words in Middle English, now only traceable in ordeal n., and perhaps ort n., where it is no longer recognized as a significant element. The primary sense was ‘out’, as in Gothic urruns , Old High German urruns ‘outrunning, exit, exodus’, Old Icelandic órfǫr outgoing, departure; thence various derived senses, of which Old English had ‘out, completely, to an end’, as in orþanc ‘thinking out, contrivance, skill, intelligence’; ‘out and out’, ‘extreme’, in orielda ‘extreme old age’; ‘outwardly, manifestly’, in orcnǣwe ‘recognizable’, orgiete ‘clearly perceptible, manifest’; and especially ‘without, void of, bereft of’, as in the adjectives ormǣte ‘measureless, immense’, ormōd ‘bereft of courage, despairing’, orsāwle ‘lifeless’, orwēne ‘without hope, desperate’, ortrēowe ‘without trust, faithless’, orsorg ‘without anxiety, secure’. (Compare Latin adjectives in ex- , as exanimis , excors , exossis , exsanguis .) In this last sense the prefix survived in early Middle English: see ormete adj., ormod adj., orrath adj., ortrow adj.