Re: Pros and cons ...

On Jul 8, 2:17 am, matt271829-n...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Jul 7, 11:55 am, Dominic Bojarski <dominicbojar...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:



On Jul 7, 10:57 am, "Charles" <tadaaa123**NOSPAM...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

... from a strict provict (never been a convict).

Yes, I heard the old joke about congress being the oposite to progress, but
for the life of me I cannot seem to remember very many pro/con words that
are in fact opposites.

Procrasternate - concrasternate? Naaaaaaaa!

Well what about:
Product - conduct?
Produce - conduce?
Program - congram?
Protect - contect?
No.

Oh! Yes, what about:
Procession - concession?
Naaa! not opposites.

So can anyone actually remember a pro/con word?

Red herring alert. The "con" in "pro and con" is a shortened form of
"contra". It has nothing to do with the "con-" prefix in the words you
list.

Dominic Bojarski

If I'm understanding it correctly, the OED says "contra" is originally
"a comparative from com, con", so perhaps it is ultimately the same
root?

(Incidentally, in case it hasn't been mentioned here already, the OED
is doing another of its free online access promotions (http://www.oed.com/bbcwords/). I'm not exactly sure how much longer it lasts
- maybe only a few more hours...)

Thanks. You're right. It is ultimately from the same root, but the
words had gone separate ways long before Cicero's time. I'm curious
about how the meaning of the word drifted from "more with" to
"against".

While I was checking, I found out that the "ge-" prefix of Old English
and German is from the same PIE root. Although it used to be by far
the most common prefix in Old English, it has entirely disappeared as
a prefix in Modern English (except in dialectical usage), and survives
in fossilized form in only a handful of words like "enough" and
"handiwork".

Dominic Bojarski



.

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