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il-. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
il-, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
il- in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
il- you have here. The definition of the word
il- will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
il-, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Latin il-, assimilated form of in- before l-.
Prefix
il-
- not; a form of the prefix in-, used before l
Synonyms
Anagrams
Catalan
Prefix
il-
- Form used before a root beginning with the letter l of in-
Usage notes
- Normally this prefix will combine with the root to make a word that uses the ela geminada. For example, il- and legal combine to form il·legal. but for some words, the use of the ela palatal will provide an alternative form or the preferred form. Thus il- and legible can combine to form either illegible or il·legible, while il- and letrat (“literate”) combine only as illetrat (“illiterate”) in Standard Catalan, although il·letrat is a common, but still illiterate, misspelling.
Derived terms
Choctaw
Prefix
il- (before consonants ī-, class I first-person plural)
- the subject of an active transitive verb
- we
- the subject of an intransitive active verb
- we
Inflection
French
Etymology
From Latin in.
Prefix
il-
- Variant of in- used before l
Derived terms
Irish
Etymology 1
From il (“much, many”), from Old Irish il, from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₁- (compare Ancient Greek πολύς (polús, “much”)).
Prefix
il- (Lenites except with d, s, t)
- multiple, poly-, multi-
- miscellaneous
- Synonyms: ilghnéitheach, ilchineálach, éagsúil
- sundry
- composite
Derived terms
Related terms
Etymology 2
Prefix
il-
- Alternative form of oll- (“great, gross”)
Mutation
| Irish mutation
|
| Radical |
Eclipsis |
with h-prothesis |
with t-prothesis
|
| il-
|
n-il-
|
hil-
|
t-il-
|
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
|
Further reading
- Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “il-”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
- Entries containing “il-” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
- Entries containing “il-” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.
Italian
Etymology
Assimilated form of in-, before l-.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /il/
- Hyphenation: il-
Prefix
il-
- Alternative form of in-
Anagrams
Latin
Etymology
Assimilated form of in-, before l-.
Prefix
il-
- Alternative form of in-
Maltese
Alternative forms
- l-, iċ-, id-, in-, ir-, is-, it-, ix-, iz-, iż-, ċ-, d-, n-, r-, s-, t-, x-, z-, ż- (see usage notes)
Etymology
From Arabic اَل (al-).
Pronunciation
Article
il-
- the
Usage notes
- The article (in all forms) connects to the following word with a hyphen:
- il- + mara → il-mara (“the woman”) ; il- + futur → il-futur (“the future”).
- Before an initial vowel, including before the vocalic letters għ and h, the i of the article is always dropped. This does not happen before q , however:
- il- + iben → l-iben (“the son”) ; il- + għasfur → l-għasfur (“the bird”) ; but: il- + qalb → il-qalb (“the heart”).
- Before an initial consonant cluster beginning with a nasal or liquid, i.e. the letters l, m, n, r + another consonant, an i is prefixed to the word and the article thus becomes l-:
- il- + rmied → l-irmied (“the ashes”) ; il- + lsien → l-ilsien (“the language”).
- The same also usually happens before an initial s, x, ż + an obstruent, i.e. a consonant other than j, l, m, n, r, w. This rule is somewhat similar to the Italian impure s, but it is applied with variation:
- il- + skola → l-iskola (“the school”) ; il- + xkupilja → l-ixkupilja (“the brush”) — less often also: is-skola, ix-xkupilja.
- Otherwise, before coronal consonants except ġ, the l of the article is generally assimilated. This means that before the letters ċ, d, n, r, s, t, x, z, ż, the article will have the according forms iċ-, id-, in-, ir-, is-, it-, ix-, iz-, iż-:
- il- + dawl → id-dawl (“the light”) ; il- + xemx → ix-xemx (“the sun”) ; but: il- + ġnien → il-ġnien (“the garden”).
- Apart from ġ and the cases where an i is prefixed, there is another exception to this assimilation, namely that ad-hoc nominalisations of particles and the like are usually not assimilated:
- il- + xiex → il-xiex (“the what”) ; il- + dejjem → il-dejjem (“the always, the forever”).
- In the context of a sentence, the i of the article is not only dropped when the following word begins with a vowel, but also when the preceding word ends with a vowel:
- Rajna l-mara. ― We saw the woman.
- Hence, even the assimilated forms of the article can be reduced to ċ-, d-, n-, r-, s-, t-, x-, z-, ż-:
- Rajna x-xemx. ― We saw the sun.
- In the same case, the article is spelt as one word with the prepositions b(i) (“with, by”), f(i) (“in”), għal (“to, for”), lil (“for”), minn (“from”), ma’ (“along with”), and ta’ (“of”):
- fil-ġnien (“in the garden”) ; mal-mara (“with the woman”) ; tax-xemx (“of the sun”).