#53424 - 01/21/02 11:58 PM
The be- prefix: adding or subtracting?
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 03/13/01
Posts: 4189
Loc: Rio Grande, Cape May County, N...
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Just a thought: beknight, bestow, bequeath, becalm...all indicate adding something. So why does behead imply taking something away? ( Unless, of course, it means adding something to the basket  ).
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#53425 - 01/22/02 01:10 AM
Re: The be- prefix: adding or subtracting?
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/09/00
Posts: 3065
Loc: Jakarta
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bereft of any adequate explanation, I remain, dear Sir, your most humble and obedient servant,
Bingley
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Bingley
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#53427 - 01/22/02 11:41 AM
Re: The be- prefix: adding or subtracting?
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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The "be" prefix seems to me to indicate a change of state.
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#53428 - 01/22/02 11:59 AM
Re: The be- prefix: adding or subtracting?
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 10/17/00
Posts: 5400
Loc: rego park
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what changes state in because?
actually it does make sense-- it is almost as if the verb to be is added to the word..
butreft? reeve, i know, but reave? quest is from quote-- (last words)
and i guess then be head-- the body changes state-- from one with a head to one with out..
speaking of which...has anyone seen the great commercial for ??? with claymation figures..
He is sitting at a candle lit table, eating and all he is talking is business.. she listens politely for a while, and then.. walks over to him, stands behind him, rubs his shoulder, and then YanK! off comes his head, leaving behind a little ball joint (like a pop bead) she walk over to the closet -- meanwhile he is continuing to talk business, almost oblivious of his bodiless state...
in the closet, she plops his head on shelf,( and suddenly he realizes what has happened, and laspes into silence!) She takes another one off the shelf.. and walks back and pops it onto the body at hand..
Newly conscious, the head looks around, notes candles, dinner and pretty lady, and starts sweets talking..
boy, if life where only like that!
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#53429 - 01/22/02 10:43 PM
Re: The be- prefix: adding or subtracting?
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 03/13/01
Posts: 4189
Loc: Rio Grande, Cape May County, N...
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It seems, however, that in all the offered specimens, that there, at least, is an inherent ambiguity in the
be- prefix as in become, which connotes a change to be sure, but it can be either a loss or a gain. Bereft and bereave do, deed, indicate loss as in derpivation or saddened emotion, but with the same ambiguity, you could also say they are adding deprivation or grief to the condition of the party or parties involved. Behead/beheading is the only one, so far, that seems to indicate loss only. Unless the ambiguity creeps in, perhaps, with its coinage in the days of yore when rulers asked for and were presented the heads of those ordered executed...whereby, in presenting such, you are giving the victim's head to, or beheading, the ruler (this is purely conjecture). Now I guess I'll have to scour the be- section of the dictionary to see if I can come up with any more examples that seem to purely connote loss/subtraction.
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#53430 - 01/23/02 01:20 AM
Re: The be- prefix: adding or subtracting?
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 11/13/00
Posts: 3146
Loc: Northamptonshire, England
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If you take the "be-" prefix and expand it back to "being" which is where I think it came from, it should all "become" clear. "Beheaded" becomes "Being headed", "Because" becomes "being caused (by)", yadda, yadda. It's a verbal shorthand which has become part of the language. Or should I say "being come" part of the language? 
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