de-

a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin (decide); also used to indicate privation, removal, and separation (dehumidify), negation (demerit; derange), descent (degrade; deduce), reversal (detract), intensity (decompound). Cf. di-², dis-¹.

[ME < L de-, prefixal use of de (prep.) from, away from, of, out of; in some words, < F < L de- or dis- DIS-¹]

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