PROGRAMME 3: dis Keep Your English Up to Date – Angličtina Youradio Talk

Prefixes, almost by definition, don't occur as separate words. I mean, that's what they're for: they're for modifying a word, occurring before a word, and making it change it’s meaning - happy, un-happy, national, de-nationalise. They don't normally occur as words on their own. You've perhaps heard 'anti' - he's very 'anti' something, a-n-t-i. Or he's very 'pro' something - well they're prefixes which have just suddenly become different words. Now they've been around for a very long time. A recent one, absolutely fascinating one, is this prefix 'dis': d-i-s, or sometimes d-i-s-s. It's from the word 'disrespect', to show disrespect to somebody, from the noun, by insulting language, or insulting behaviour. It means basically to put somebody down. It's American, black English slang, and it's been around since about 1980. And what's happened, it's come to be used as a full verb. You can say now 'I dissed him' - to diss, I dissed him - or 'stop dissing her'. And that's the interesting thing, that it's the prefix that's become the verb! It's a most remarkable development. prefix - předpona to occur - objevit se to modify - změnit, pozměnit he's very 'anti - velký odpůrce he's very 'pro' - zastánce they've been around - existují disrespect - neúcta, nezdvořilost, urážka to show disrespect (to put somebody down) - urážet, zesměšňovat to diss - urážet, zesměšňovat, vysmívat se it's been around since - existuje od…