Asymptomatic - First encounter with Greek prefixes in English

Knowing the relationship between Greek roots and word formation in English

認識希臘字根與英文造字的關係

T : Thomas ｜M : Mickey

T: Hi Mickey! What are you up to?

M: I’m enjoying my afternoon tea here. Can you spare some time?

T: Oh, sure.

M: Ah Thomas, by the way, did you read the newspapers today? It’s reported: Despite the number of influenza confirmed cases is coming down, there should be quite a few invisible virus-carriers, those asymptomatic carriers. What does this word, asymptomatic mean?

T: It’s one of those English hybrid words with the Greek prefix － a-, meaning not, non, un, to negate the basic meaning of the word, which in this case asymptomatic actually means no symptoms.

M: It’s something new to me. Can you give me some examples?

T: Sure. I can think of the following, to start with: asymmetrical; atypical and even abnormal, where the ab is a variation of a.

M: Wow! I haven’t come across something like these.

T: Haha! It’s time you should read more books.

T：嗨 Mickey！你要做甚麼？

M： 我正在吃下午茶。你有時間嗎？

T： 哦，當然有。

M： 啊Thomas，順便問一下，你今天讀報了沒有？據報道： 儘管流感的確診病例數子正在下降，但應該有不少隱形帶菌者，即那些無症狀帶菌者。Asymptomatic這個詞是甚麼意思？

T： 它是帶有希臘語前綴 —— a- 英語混合詞之一，意思是not、non、un，以否定原詞的基本含義，在這種情況下， asymptomatic實際上意味著沒有症狀。

M： 這詞對我來說很新鮮。能給我一些例子嗎？

T： 當然可以。首先，我可以想到以下幾點：不對稱（asymmetrical）；非典型的（atypical）；冷漠（apathy）；甚至異常（abnormal），其中ab是a的變體。

M： 哇！我從沒有接觸過這些詞。

T： 哈哈，你是時候要多看書了!