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prefisso

Prefisso is the term for an affix placed at the beginning of a word or base form to modify its meaning or grammatical category. The Italian word derives from Latin praefixus, from prae- 'before' and fixus 'fixed'. In morphology, a prefix is a bound morpheme attached to the left of a root or stem, forming new words or shifting their sense.

Prefixes are a common mechanism of word formation in Italian and many other languages. They can be

Beyond linguistics, the term prefisso appears in practical domains such as telecommunications, where prefisso telefonico refers

See also: affix, prefix vs suffix, morpheme, word formation, linguistic morphology.

derivational,
building
new
lexemes
with
related
or
specialized
meanings,
or
in
some
cases
express
negation,
repetition,
or
direction.
Examples
include
dis-
in
disonesto
(dishonest),
pre-
in
preparare
(to
prepare),
anti-
in
antifascista
(anti-fascist),
and
ri-
in
riprendere
(to
resume).
The
inventory
and
productivity
of
prefixes
vary
by
language,
and
some
prefixes
interact
with
phonology
and
orthography
in
predictable
ways.
to
the
country
or
area
code
used
before
a
local
number,
and
in
computing
or
data
formats
where
a
string
may
serve
as
a
prefix
to
identify
a
category
or
version.