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Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

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Negative Formations<br />

Unreliable. Irreversible. Disloyal. Indecisive. Impractical.<br />

Atypical. Counterintuitive. Illiterate. Abnormal. Deactivate.<br />

Misremember. Antiracism. Nonaddictive. Maladjusted. Childless.<br />

Cholesterol-free. Just as not every plural is formed by adding<br />

s <strong>to</strong> the singular, not every negative is formed by adding un. One<br />

of the challenges of the English language is the variety of addons<br />

that can be united with base words <strong>to</strong> create their opposites.<br />

Sometimes the reason for using a given prefix or suffix has <strong>to</strong> do<br />

with the meaning of the negative word, sometimes with the form<br />

or the etymological root of the base word. <strong>The</strong> result of all this<br />

variation is that negative words present yet another pitfall <strong>to</strong> the<br />

unwary writer, and are the source of many common errors.<br />

Varied as they are, negative prefixes and suffixes aren't utterly<br />

arbitrary. <strong>The</strong>ir specific meanings are as follows:<br />

A-OR AN-<br />

(an before a vowel or the letter h)<br />

Without, lacking, absent achromatic, asexual, amoral,<br />

ANTI­<br />

48<br />

anaerobic, anhedonia<br />

Opposite of antimatter, Antichrist, anti­<br />

clockwise (alternative <strong>to</strong><br />

counterclockwise)<br />

Preventing or alleviating antidepressant, antifreeze<br />

Combating or defending against antimissile, antiaircraft, antibiotic<br />

Opposed <strong>to</strong> or hostile <strong>to</strong> antimonarchist, antivivisectionist,<br />

anti-Semitic

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