Some Prefixes.

Prefixes aren't doing too well. People like all kinds of parts of words better than prefixes. Circumfixes are getting way popular. I tried to give prefixes a figurtive shot in the arm with my spotlight on one of the best prefixes, s-. Well, it looks like it is time for a booster. I would like to present two more of my favorite prefixes: zwitter- and super-.

Let's not worry too much about the etymology of zwitter-. Its most common use is in the word "zwitterion." For those that don't know what a zwitter is, it is an ion that has positive and negative parts, like an amino acid or some other crazy ion. Anyway, if you have a day on which you get a new friend but you also get punched in the face, you could call that a zwitterday. It's a day with positive and negative parts. This could also be used to describe a computer development that perfected AI but also caused robots to destroy San Francisco. Zwitterdevelopment.

In comparisson to zwitter-, super- is much more frequently used. But people don't realize how many palces super- can be used. Here is an example:

Superdivorce: Say you were married to someone, but things weren't working out. So you divorce that sucker. Fine. But, then, what if they did something awful to you and you wanted to be married to them even less. What recourse would you have? Superdivorce. This can be done in any legitimate court of law, or, in some cultures, by saying "I divorce you" one million times.

In this example, the married value for the couple is changed to a negative one from a zero. You can superdivorce someone to whom you are married as well. This would set the value to negative zero as well. If the couple wanted to be remarried, they'd have to get married twice. This is usually how super- works in this context. For example:

If you superadopt a kid, you, and, if you have one, your spouse, have to die twice before that kid is legally an orphan.

If you superfire someone, they would have to be rehired twice in order for that person to collect a paycheck.

If you superkill someone and they were brought back to life, you would count that as two miracles rather than one. This is a pretty meaningless distinction for most people, but if you are two miracles away from canonization, it is really important.

I'll send you back to the essence.