| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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8. Word Formation: Plurals, Possessives, Affixes, and Compounds
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| § 14. equi- |
| The prefix equi- means “equal” or “equally.” Equi- is from the Latin prefix aequi-, which came from Latin aequus, meaning “equal.” Thus equidistant means “equally distant.” Equi- often occurs in words with Latin elements. For example, equinox means “having the night equal (to the day),” from Latin nox, “night.” Equivalent is from valere, “to be worth, amount to,” and so is literally “amounting to the same thing.” | 1 |
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| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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