Affixation
Definition

In linguistics, affixation is the process of adding amorpheme (or affix) to a word to create either (a) a different form of that word (e.g., bird → birds), or (b) a new word with a different meaning (bird →birder). Affixation is the most common way of making new words in English.

The two primary kinds of affixation are prefixation(the addition of a prefix) and suffixation (the addition of a suffix).

Examples and Observations

•"Men who areun happy, like men who sleepbadly, are always proud of the fact."(Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness, 1930)
•"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older."(attributed to Tom Stoppard)

Prefix
Definition

A prefix is a letter or group of letters attached to the beginning of a word that partly indicates its meaning. Common prefixes include anti- (against),co- (with), mis- (wrong, bad), and trans- (across).The word prefix contains the prefix pre- (which means "before") and the root word fix (which means "to fasten or place"). Thus the wordprefixmeans "to place before."

Prefixation (the process of adding a prefix to a word) is a common way of forming new words in English.