the.com/affix
A word part that shows up uninvited and changes who you are.
means A piece attached to a word's beginning or end (or occasionally inserted within it) that changes its meaning or grammatical role, like a prefix or suffix.
from From Latin affixus, past participle of affigere, 'to fasten to' — from ad- ('to') plus figere ('to fix, fasten'). The same figere gives us 'fix' and 'fixture,' so an affix is literally something nailed onto a word, holding fast whether the word likes it or not.
- not standalone
- always clings to a root, never alone
- two camps
- prefixes lead, suffixes follow
- infix exists
- rare type stuffed inside the root itself
- meaning shifter
- unhappy versus happiness, same root, different fate