co-
/koʊ/
prefix
Origin
Latin
cum — with, together
Overview
Meaning Now
- A prefix used to form nouns, adjectives, and verbs meaning 'together', 'jointly', 'mutually', or 'in association'.
Literal older meaning
with, together
Language path
Latin → English
Earliest form
co-
Earliest period
14th century
Journey
The prefix 'co-' is a variant of 'com-', resulting from the loss of the final '-m' in Latin before certain consonants (primarily 'h', 'gn', and vowels). It became highly productive in English during the Renaissance for creating technical and scholarly terminology.
Evolution
- Proto-Indo-European
*kom
“beside, near, with”
- Latin
cum
“with”
Becomes 'co-' when prefixed to words beginning with certain consonants.
- Middle English
co-
“together”
Borrowed from Old French and Latin.
Connections
Word parts
co-
prefix
together
Explore next
Related to co-
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.