A history of the English Language

219.
Prefixes and Suffixes.
Another method of enlarging the vocabulary is by appending familiar prefixes and 
suffixes to existing words on the pattern of similar words in the language. Several of the 
Latin prefixes seem to lend themselves readily to new combinations. Thus in the period 
under discussion we have formed 
transoceanic, transcontinental, trans-Siberian, 
transliterate, transformer,
and several more or less technical terms such as 
transfinite, 
transmarine, transpontine,
etc. We speak of
 postimpressionists
in art, 
postprandial
oratory, the 
postclassical
period, and 
postgraduate
study. In the same way we 
use pre
- in 
such words as
 prenatal, preschool 
age,
 prehistoric, pre-Raphaelite, preregistration;
we 
may
 preheat 
or
 precool
in certain technical processes; and passengers who need more 
time may
 preboard
. In film parlance we may have a 
preview, 
a
 prerelease,
or even a
 
prequel
. From World War I came 
counterattack
and from World War II 
counterintelligence
. In his 
Man and Superman
Bernard Shaw coined the word 
superman
to translate the German 
Übermensch
of Nietzschian philosophy. We 
subirrigate
and build 
a 
subcellar,
and foreign movies sometimes come to us with 
subtitles
. We can 
decode
a 
message, 
defrost
a refrigerator, 
deflate
the currency, and we may 
debunk
a statement, 
debug
a machine, and 
decaffeinate
coffee. It is so also with suffixes. Twentieth-century 
popular creations on old patterns are 
stardom,filmdom,fandom, gangster, pollster, 
profiteer, racketeer
. Familiar endings like -
some, 
-
ful, 
-
less
can be freely added in 
accordance with longstanding habits in the language.