Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An inseparable prefix in words of Greek origin, signifying ‘hard, difficult, bad, ill,’ and implying some difficulty, imperfection, inability, or privation in the act, process, or thing denoted by the word of which it forms a part.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • An inseparable prefix, fr. the Greek dys- hard, ill, and signifying ill, bad, hard, difficult, and the like; cf. the prefixes, Skr. dus-, Goth. tuz-, OHG. zur-, G. zer-, AS. to-, Icel. tor-, Ir. do-.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • prefix bad

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dys-, "difficult, bad status"), from Proto-Indo-European *dus-. See tore for Proto-Germanic cognates, and Persian دشمن (došman) for PIE cognates.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dys-.

Examples

  • Dis- is also now often negative, to my disgust, because of confusion with the Greek dys- (as in “dysfunctional,” a macaronic horror), but earlier meant “in different directions” (the final s happily assimilates to a following consonant).

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • Dis- is also now often negative, to my disgust, because of confusion with the Greek dys- (as in “dysfunctional,” a macaronic horror), but earlier meant “in different directions” (the final s happily assimilates to a following consonant).

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • Dis- is also now often negative, to my disgust, because of confusion with the Greek dys- (as in “dysfunctional,” a macaronic horror), but earlier meant “in different directions” (the final s happily assimilates to a following consonant).

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • Dis- is also now often negative, to my disgust, because of confusion with the Greek dys- (as in “dysfunctional,” a macaronic horror), but earlier meant “in different directions” (the final s happily assimilates to a following consonant).

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.