The over- prefix in this case is not spatial, but related to superiority.
- 08.115 and soon they would all be overpowered like weary flies.
“overpower, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 14 July 2015.
word
Overjoyed
With an obscure meaning of being too happy, overjoyed does come from the verb “overjoy” – to transport with gladness.
- 12.018 Balin was overjoyed to see the hobbit again,
“overjoy, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 14 July 2015.
“overjoyed, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 14 July 2015.
Overhear
Apparently the Old English meaning of “overhear” was to not pay attention to something you heard, as in “disobey”. Our hobbit is the only character who overhears in the novel, by the modern usage “to hear without the speaker intending you should do so”.
- 01.097 if I have overheard words that you were saying.
- 09.013 to overhear some of the guards talking
- 19.006 for he overheard the words of the wizard to Elrond.
“over-, prefix.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 14 July 2015.
“overhear, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 14 July 2015.
Overgrow
King Alfred used this word in his treatise on Pastoral Care in Old English about 1200 years ago! His spelling is recorded as “ofergreow”. I learn from the OED that the over-prefix can have spatial or temporal connotations.
- 07.130 was overgrown and disused at the eastern end
“over-, prefix.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 14 July 2015.
“overgrow, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 14 July 2015.
Outstretch
I must recommend the essay in OED at the opening of the entry for the prefix “out-“! it is delicious. “Stretch” is a verb of Germanic and Norse ancestry.
- 07.094 that lay outstretched far to North
- 18.053 shining over the outstretched lands.
“out-, prefix.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 29 July 2015.
“stretch, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 29 July 2015.
Outpost
This meaning of “post”, and there are several, comes from French and Italian and post-classical Latin.
- 07.005 like a last outpost of the distant mountains,
“post, n.3.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 29 July 2015.
Outnumber
“Number” comes to us through Norman French and more distally, Latin numerare.
- 18.022 they were still outnumbered.
“number, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 29 July 2015.
Outlandish
“Outlandish” has an archaic meaning which plays a little game with us. We usually know it as “unusual or bizarre”, and read right past it as such. But the scene is of Bilbo telling himself not to think of dragons – and he may be telling himself not to be ridiculous… but dragons are real in Middle Earth, they are simply foreign to the Shire, the older, archaic meaning of “outlandish”. We and Bilbo should not leave a live dragon out of our calculations.
- 02.002 and all that outlandish nonsense at your age!”
“outlandish, adj. and n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 29 July 2015.
Outcry
with boatloads of Romantic cognate, “cry” is traceable to Latin quirītāre
- 05.143 There was a terrible outcry,
“cry, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 29 July 2015.
Outburst
“Burst” has a fine German heritage, earlier meanings indicating the injury, not the action of breaking.
- 12.102 This was the outburst of his wrath
“burst, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 29 July 2015.
words that you were saying 