| 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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| § 30. micro- |
| The basic meaning of the prefix micro- is “small.” It comes from the Greek prefix mikro-, from mikros, meaning “small.” In English micro- has been chiefly used since the 19th century to form science words. It is the counterpart for the prefix macro-("large") in pairs such as microcosm/macrocosm and micronucleus/macronucleus. And micro- is also sometimes the counterpart for the prefix mega-, as in microvolt (“one millionth of a volt”) and megavolt (“one million volts”). | 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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