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In the word "aurochs", the "aur" prefix is the same as German "ur" indicating beginning or origin. (To beer drinkers around the world it may be familiar in the
by pavlov 4y ago
In the word "aurochs", the "aur" prefix is the same as German "ur" indicating beginning or origin.
(To beer drinkers around the world it may be familiar in the name of Pilsner Urquell, the original pale lager. Quell means source.)
So aurochs is literally "original ox". I don't think there is any other English word that preserves this prefix.
- zamnos 4y agoAuroa/Aurora, Auricle, Auriferous, Auriscope, Auroral, Aurum, Auspicious.
- pavlov 4y agoI don't think any of these are directly derived from the German "ur" like aurochs is. Aurora / aurum come from Greek. Auricle and a few others are from Latin auris, ear. Auspicious comes from Latin "auspex" (bird seer) so the root is avis, bird.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoThey don't preserve it, but there's various modern academic words that use it, like urtext (sometimes with a hyphen) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/urtext#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/urtext#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ur-#Derived_terms https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ur-#Derived_terms
- MagnumOpus 4y agoThough those academic words are often loan words from German where the ur- prefix is still very much in use (urtext and urheimat in particular)