browse words by letter
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
prefix |
4 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Prefix \Pre*fix"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Prefixed}; p. pr & vb n. {Prefixing}.] [L. praefixus p. p. of praefigere to fix or fasten before prae before + figere to fix: cf F. pr['e]fix fixed beforehand, determined, pr['e]fixer to prefix. See Fix.] 1. To put or fix before or at the beginning of another thing as to prefix a syllable to a word or a condition to an agreement. 2. To set or appoint beforehand; to settle or establish antecedently. [Obs.] `` Prefixed bounds. '' --Locke. And now he hath to her prefixt a day --Spenser. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Prefix \Pre"fix\, n. [Cf. F. pr['e]fixe.] That which is prefixed; esp., one or more letters or syllables combined or united with the beginning of a word to modify its signification; as pre- in prefix, con- in conjure. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: prefix n : an affix that added in front of the word v : attach a prefix to "prefixed words" [ant: {suffix}] From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]: prefix 1.The standard metric prefixes used in the SI (Syst`eme International) conventions for scientific measurement. With units of time or things that come in powers of 10, such as money, they retain their usual meanings of multiplication by powers of 1000 = 10^3. When used with bytes or other things that naturally come in powers of 2, they usually denote multiplication by powers of 1024 = 2^(10). Here are the SI magnifying prefixes, along with the corresponding binary interpretations in common use: prefix abr decimal binary yocto- 1000^-8 zepto- 1000^-7 atto- 1000^-6 femto- f 1000^-5 pico- p 1000^-4 nano- n 1000^-3 micro- * 1000^-2 * Abbreviation: Greek mu milli- m 1000^-1 kilo- k 1000^1 1024^1 = 2^10 = 1,024 mega- M 1000^2 1024^2 = 2^20 = 1,048,576 giga- G 1000^3 1024^3 = 2^30 = 1,073,741,824 tera- T 1000^4 1024^4 = 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776 peta- 1000^5 1024^5 = 2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624 exa- 1000^6 1024^6 = 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 zetta- 1000^7 1024^7 = 2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 yotta- 1000^8 1024^8 = 2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 The prefixes zetta-, yotta-, zepto-, and yocto- have been included in these tables purely for completeness and giggle value; they were adopted in 1990 by the "19th Conference Generale des Poids et Mesures". The binary peta- and exa- loadings, though well established, are not in jargon use either - yet The prefix milli-, denoting multiplication by 1000^(-1), has always been rare in jargon (there is however, a standard joke about the millihelen" - notionally, the amount of beauty required to launch one ship). Femto" and atto" (which, interestingly, derive not from Greek but from Danish) have not yet acquired jargon loadings, though it is easy to predict what those will be once computing technology enters the required realms of magnitude (however, see {attoparsec}). The abbreviated forms of these prefixes are common in electronics and physics. k, M and G are also common in computing where they stand for powers of two more often than powers of ten Thus MB" stands for megabytes (2^20 bytes). In speach, the unit is often dropped so one may talk of "a 40K salary" (40000 dollars) or "2M of disk space" (2*2^20 bytes). The accepted pronunciation of the initial G of "giga-" was once soft, /ji'ga/ (like "gigantic"), but now the hard pronunciation, /gi'ga/, is probably more common. [Is this true of Commonwealth countries?] Note that the formal SI metric prefix for 1000 is lower case "k"; some including this dictionary use this strictly, reserving K" for multiplication by 1024 (KB is thus "kilobytes"). Confusing 1000 and 1024 (or other powers of 2 and 10 close in magnitude) - for example, describing a memory in units of 500K or 524K instead of 512K - is a sure sign of the {marketroid}. One example of this: it is common to refer to the capacity of 3.5" {microfloppies} as "1.44 MB" In fact this is a completely {bogus} number. The correct size is 1440 KB that is 1440 * 1024 = 1474560 bytes. So the mega" in "1.44 MB" is compounded of two "kilos", one of which is 1024 and the other of which is 1000. The correct number of megabytes would of course be 1440 / 1024 = 1.40625. Alas, this fine point is probably lost on the world forever. In 1993, hacker Morgan Burke proposed, to general approval on {Usenet}, the following additional prefixes: groucho (10^-30), harpo (10^-27), harpi (10^27), grouchi (10^30). This would leave the prefixes zeppo-, gummo-, and chico- available for future expansion. Sadly, there is little immediate prospect that Mr Burke's eminently sensible proposal will be ratified. 2. Related to the {prefix notation}. (2001-02-14)
more about prefix
This work is licensed under a
