The only things afloat in The Hobbit are the barrels which carried Thorin and Company out of bond. It comes from “on float” with a reduction of the first element in the “a-” preposition1 sense: expressing a position within a situation, just as in “afire”.
“afloat, adj. and adv.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
This is the “a-” preposition 1, forming a prepositional phrase “on fire” indicating being in a situation of fire. It’s not to be confused with “a-” prefix 1, but could be parallel to “a-” prefix 3 with the sense of on or onto. Bless. I’m starting to get the hang of this.
“a-, prefix3.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“a, prep.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“afire, adv. and adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since I saw “accursed” used as an example a few words ago. It could be “a-” prefix 1, the unemphasized form of “on-“, implying motion onward and therefore adding intensity – Old English “oncursie”. It could be an occurrence of “a-” prefix 3, the unemphasized form of a completely different preposition spelled “on-” which formed verbs, adverbs, and prepositions with the meaning “onto”. Or… in classical Latin, the “ad-” prefix before C or QU changed to “ac-” for mouth-ease reasons, as in accumulare. The doubling of the C was applied to a number of words beginning with the sound regardless of the word’s origin.
We do have “bless” in a previous entry, so I’m pleased to see a form of “curse” here as well. I wonder about the two different ways we saw “bless” used. Does Thorin describe Mirkwood as “accursed” because he needs a good cuss-word with which to show his contempt of the place? Or does he shudder and mop his brow and shift his eyes and feel the cold influence of the Necromancer?
“a-, prefix1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“a-, prefix3.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“ac-, prefix.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“accurse, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“accursed, adj. and n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
The “a-” is an unstressed form of “of” and the word has been a regular member of the English lexicon since the 1200s.
“afar, adv.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
Classical Latin again for this instance of initial a – it’s “ad + ordain”, to put the ornaments on an object.
“adorn, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“Adjoin” is another Latin derivative, this time quite clearly from ad + iungere “toward join”.
“adjoin, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
I was interested to learn if “acquaint” was one of the English “a-” prefix or preposition words, but that letter A is of more classical ancestry, it’s the Latin ad of adcognitare.
“acquaint, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
This use of “a-” forms adverbs and prepositions and comes from the “on – ” preposition which we saw in “ablaze”, so both Prefix 3 and Preposition 1 are in play here!
“a-, prefix3.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
“a, prep.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.
“abreast, adv. and prep.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
“Ablaze” enters The Hobbit in its adverbial form (it can also be an adjective), and only in Chapter 14 in reference to Smaug! The “a-” prefix is the unstressed spelling of “on” as in “on fire” which became one word with use.
“a, prep.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
“ablaze, adj. and adv.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
In the sense of “dwelling place”, OED calls this a literary word, and I temporarily tagged it thus. (Update 2015.06.08) Only one other literary word raised its head in our explorations, so I remove the tag.
Apparently “a-” here is a variant of the unstressed prefix “or-”, which creates nouns and verbs, as in “ordeal”.
18.032 There now Dain son of Nain took up his abode,
“a-, prefix1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
“abide, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
“abode, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
“† or-, prefix.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
words that you were saying 