prothesis

Meaning

The prepending of phonemes at the beginning of a word without changing its morphological structure, as in Spanish esfera from Greek (via Latin) sphaera (“sphere”) (without prothesis the word would have become *sfera).

Synonyms

prosthesis

Translations

prothèse

prótesis

πρόθεση

protesi

prothese

prótese

öntüreme

protez

takma organ

pròtesi

önses ilavesi

Prothese

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpɹɒθəsɪs/

Etymology

From Late Latin prothesis, prosthesis, alteration (dropping the ‘s’) from Ancient Greek πρόσθεσις (prósthesis, “addition, augmentation”), (English prosthesis) from προστίθημι (prostíthēmi, “I add”), from πρός (prós, “towards”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “I place”), from Proto-Indo-European *próti, *préti + *dʰédʰeh₁- (“to be putting, to be placing”).
However, often confused for a descendant of the Ancient Greek word πρόθεσις (próthesis, “a preposing, preposition”) (without the σ (s)), which is instead the source of a different term – see alternative etymology, below.