| 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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| § 47. semi- / hemi- / demi- |
| The prefix semi- means “half” or “partially.” In general it combines with adjectives: semiattached, semidry, semisweet. Semi- also combines, less commonly, with nouns: semidarkness, semidesert, semidome. Semi- can be compared with the prefixes hemi- and demi-. All three have basically the same meaning, but semi- comes from Latin semi-, meaning “half,” and hemi- comes from Greek hemi-, meaning “half.” Demi- comes from Latin dimidius, meaning “divided in half,” from dis, “apart, asunder” plus medius, “half.” | 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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