a-

Meanings

1. Forming verbs with the sense away, up, on, out.
2. Forming verbs with the sense of intensified action.

1. In, on, at; used to show a state, condition, or manner. Also passing into sense 2.
2. In, into. Also passing into sense 5.
3. In the direction of, or toward.
4. At such a time.
5. In the act or process of. Used in some dialects before a present participle.

1. Alternative form of y-. In dialect, it is sometimes conflated with sense 5 of the previous definition, and is used as a general indicator of a participle.
2. Used to form the past participle of a verb.

1. Forming words with the sense of wholly, or utterly out.

1. Not, without, opposite of.

1. Towards; Used to indicate direction, reduction to, increase to, change into, or motion.

1. Away from.

1. Of, from.

1. Alternative form of -a (“empty syllable added to songs, poetry, verse and other speech”).

1. Used as a prefix to verbs in the sense of remaining in the same condition. Actively doing something.

Etymology

From Middle English a- (“up, out, away”), from Old English ā-, originally *ar-, *or-, from Proto-West Germanic *uʀ-, from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out-”), from Proto-Indo-European *uds- (“up, out”). Cognate with Old Saxon a-, German er-.