Etymograph

English

de-

De- comes from Latin dē ‘of’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdē1‘of; from’
  2. Englishtodayde-2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin de-
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English de-

Earlier history not traced here. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēWiktionary, Latin de-‘of; from’
  2. Englishtodayde-Wiktionary, English de-

The story

For sense development, compare Old English æf-, which was a similar prefix.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin dē ‘of’

deserve, desire, dice, departmental, dorado, deprive, deduce, 4 more

Today it means

prefix reversal, undoing

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “de-”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin de-. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin dē / de-

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