The Meanings of Prefix “Over”

The rules of word formation undergo changes from day to day. Prefixes become productive or lose their productivity. The aim of this paper is to examine the various meanings of prefix over-in English. Although it has its specific distinct meaning which is 'excessive' or too much, it can also imply other meanings. The prefix over-is used to form many different words, so it is very productive in constantly forming new words. Some of the words with over-represent recent coinages and some are very old dating back to the 16th century.

The large majority of prefixes do not change the syntactic category of their base words.Moreover,they can be attached to more than one kind of syntactic category (verb,adjective,or noun) and do not influence the stress placement of their bases.

On prefix over-
There are three master patterns of word formation in English:affixation,conversion and compounding.In the process of affixation, prefixes and suffixes are added to the bases to form a new word.They may change syntatic category of the base form.Conversion allows transformation of one category into another without changing the base form while compounding allows adding one word to another to form a new word.Even though the word formation relies on certain rules,the rules themselves may be subject to change.Some affixes may become more productive, and some may lose their productivity.For example,old English affix -th is no longer used in formation of new words, but it is kept in nouns such as warmth,width,etc.
Apart from Latin and Greek prefixes, English uses German prefixes to create new words.The most productive German prefixes are in-,out-,up-,down-,under-,and over-.One of the characteristics of these prefixes in standard English is their mutual exclusiveness.But it would be wrong to say they are always mutually exclusive.The exception to the rule is found in spoken English.For example,if we imagine a person who is supposed to be overdressed but does not reach that degree of overdress,we might describe that person as underoverdressed (Lehrer 144).According to the same author, if one wants to emphasise the meaning of these German prefixes, they can double the prefix and make a word like overoverachiever.
Even though the original meaning of German prefixes is local,they can have other meanings too.Our intention here is to show all possible meanings of prefix over-.
Prefix over-appears in old English.Back then it was used in a combination with verbs as in oferclimban,with nouns oferslop,with adjectives oferceald.At the time,it appeared in the form of ofer-, but also in the form of ouer as in ouerbide (survive),commonly in the verb formation.
The majority of old English forms disappeared in the Middle Ages, and the forms with prefix over-we use today appeared after 1550 (Brenda 2014: 70).Yet,in that period there were still words formed with prefix ouer-:ouerfilm,ouerfineoverfloate.
Prefix over-has always been used for formation of new verbs in English, the verbs Biber (Biber et al 2007: 403) claims are rare.Consulting The Oxford Dictionary he gives the examples of verbs derivationally formed by prefix over-, and divides them into: the ones that appeared before 1650: overeat, overfeed, overpay, overshoot, overstay, overstrain, overtax, overweigh, the ones that appeared after 1920:overextend,overgraze,overprotect,overprovide.
Certain words with prefix over-were introduced in English by eminent English theologians and writers.For example, J.Wycliffe(1320-1384),famous British theologian and reformer,translating the Bible,brought into English the following words:overabound,overcarry,overcover,overgive.
J. Milton (1608Milton ( -1674)),one of the most important English writers used the following over-words in English:overarch, overripe,overstudy.He made the verb overbody (to give too much body to someone) from the noun overbody, and the adjective overawful (too full of awe toward someone) from the verb overawe.
Like Milton,Shakespeare first used the word overearnest (although the word was first introduced by Sidney in Arcadia in the form of adverb), the word overcharged (from verb overcharge) and many other.Quirk (1985Quirk ( :1542) ) classifies prefix over-under prefixes of degree and size claiming that his primary meaning is 'excessive'.When it means 'too much', over-freely combines with verbs and adjectives as in:overeat,oversimplify, overconfident,overdressed. In his second-common meaning 'from above' it is usually added to verbs:overflow,overshadow, etc.
In a great number of examples analysed for the purpose of this study prefix over-meant 'too much' and it was combined with verbs (1) and (2), nouns (3) and (4), adjectives (5), adverbs (6) and numbers (7): 1. Like olive oil, though, rapeseed oil needs to be used with care as its unique flavour can overpower a dish or dressing.
2. The FDA's decision came on the heels of the discovery that American women were routinely overdosing on Ambien.3. Pennycook is trying to turnaround the Co-op which lost £2.5bn in 2013 after the problems in the bank and an overexpansion of its supermarket arm.4. "Reluctant governments should realise that overemphasising the 'pull effect' is not only factually incorrect but also morally indefensible," said the Centre for European Reform thinktank on Thursday.5. Without this, patients will continue to turn up at A&E in desperation, and will place more pressure on an already overstretched service.6. Kickstarter-funded adventure Broken Age told two stories in old-school "point and click" style: one about a boy stuck on a spaceship with an overbearingly maternal AI, the other featuring a girl about to take part in a ritual called the Maiden's Feast in which she gets fed to a monster.7.More top-slicing is likely and there is the possibility that Whittingdale will revisit the idea of the BBC paying £500 cost of free TV licences for the over-75s.8.Although the commonest meaning of prefix over-is 'excessive',there are some other meanings that can be conveyed with this prefix such as local, temporal, general, meanings of failure, meanings of limit, meanings of power and metaphorical meanings: 9.With Luis Suárez out with a calf strain, Pedro then tried an overhead kick but missed the ball and Dani Alves drew a save from Jan Oblak from 30 yards.10.Soak the beans overnight and cook per instructions on packet or click here for the River Cafe recipe.In a large thick-bottomed pan, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil.11.While its revenue has grown consistently, peaking at $75bn in 2013, its overall profit has remained flat due to heavy reinvestment of income from mature services into growing areas.12. Rules that were made to defend the rights of the less wealthy are being overlooked.13.It has transformative properties too: even on an overcast day, this gilded beacon casts a warm aura over the entire site.14.During one very speedy visit to a factory where we were asked to wear blue overalls, one minister thought it funny to say: "It would be better if you weren't wearing anything underneath."15.My clothes are tatty.My face is too spotty and my laugh too loud.I overhear friends asking why I put up with it.16.Calling for a complete overhaul of how the project is managed, the report stated: "Proper planning must be in place and managed, which is not the case presently."17.His comments had stated that, instead of feeling sorry for themselves and dwelling on the segregation and racism they faced in the past, African Americans should work harder to overcome their troubled history.18.The pivotal year, when hip-hop went overground, was perhaps 1988, when Yo! MTV Raps aired and beamed it across middle America.Nelson George (old school: "before 1985"), a hip-hop commentator since the genre's infancy, remembers first hearing the term "in the 1990s when the west-coast scene was happening and there was a sense of eras passing".19.Tory sources say the significance lies in the overlapping remits of Gove's new department and that of Theresa May's home office.20.Industry experts estimate that around 62% of young adult fiction is bought for over-18s.21.Later in the same month he and his wife, who used to sing his songs delightfully, gave some piano and song recitals in London; while in August he conducted the performance of his overture "In Autumn" at the Birmingham Festival.22. Techno-optimist Kevin Kelly of Wired celebrates the coming of our robot overlords, arguing that they wil free us to do more fulfilling and higher-value jobs in the future.
The meaning of over-from the phrase overhead kick (8) is local and means the kick from above someone's head; over-in overnight (9) has temporal meaning and means during the night,but it can also denote something that happens suddenly; over-in overall profit (10) means total; over-in overlook (11) means to miss but in can also mean to have a view of something usually from above; over-in overcast (12) means dark with clouds; over-in overalls (13) denotes a piece of clothing worn over other clothes to protect them; over-in overhear ( 14) to hear what other people are saying unintentionally, over-in overhaul (15) means to change to improve; over-in overcome (16) means to control something that prevents you from achieving something; go overground (17) has a metaphorical meaning and means become popular, over-in overlapping (18) means selective inclusion; over-is combined with a number (19) to form a noun which is always in plural and refer to people who are older than the number mentioned; over-in overture (20) denotes the introduction into a large piece of music;over-in overlord (21) is combined with a noun to denote someone who has power.Usually over-of this type is combined with nouns and verbs to form new verbs.Verbs formed in this way express the idea that someone has power over someone else as in :overcome,overpower,override,overrule,overrun,overthrow,oversee,overturn,overwhelm.Nouns with this power impact are combined with king,lord,ruler:overking,overlord,overclass,overruler.
Some words with prefix over-have a meaning 'to go beyond': overtake, overtime, overshoot while some mean to fail: overbalance, overlook, oversight.
The study we conducted also comprises words with prefix over-pertaining to English for specific purposes 1 .The great majority of over-words in the field of business English means 'excessive' or 'too much' as in: overcapacity,overleveraged,overproduction,overspent,overload but the prefix over-in some words have other meanings too,for example, word overheads used in business English refers to indirect costs (not related to production but to administration).
Words with prefix over-combine with nouns and adjectives in medicine.Words formed in this way indicate that the quality exists in immense amounts:overactive,overdiagnosis,overdose,overexertion,overhydratation,overnutrition, oversensitive,overstimulation,overweight.Here again, some words with prefix over-have a meaning that is not that of excess like the word overbite which describes a condition in which someone's upper teeth are too far in front of their lower teeth,or the word over-the-counter which is usually combined with drugs or remedies (drugs that can be obtained without a prescription).
In the language of law, certain words with prefix over-mean to change:override,overrule,overturn.
In the language of sport, words with prefix over-may have local meaning (overarm,overhead),some can have the meaning 'too much' (over-swing and over-club) or the meaning do pass or to do better than, after catching up with someone (overhaul).The word typical of newspaper reporting is over-by-over,which is also found in our corpus.
Prefix over-combines more willingly with certain semantic items which are classified in the following table:

Conclusion
Although linguists (Quirk 1985, Plag 2002) argue that the main meaning of prefix over-is 'excess', there are other meanings conveyed with this prefix:temporal,local,metaphorical etc. Over-can be freely added to different syntactic categories which makes it a very productive prefix.Almost all possible meanings of the prefix over-are illustrated in the previous headings.
Yet, there are some other meanings that may be conveyed with this prefix but they are not exemplified here.