Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word per-. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word per-, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say per- in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word per- you have here. The definition of the word per- will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofper-, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
When this prefix is combined with the prefixes meng-, di-, ter-, and ke-, the imperative aspect is lost
pe- is used in word with initial /r/ or word with final /-ər.C-/ in first syllable
However, some words that don't have /-ər.C-/ used this suffix inconsistently (per- + desa + -an > pedesaan).
pel- is only used in the words ajar and unjur together with their derivatives.
Verbs with the prefix per- with an adjective stem are classified as causative verbs which cause the object to be ranked higher than its previous state. The difference with verbs with the suffix -kan which are also causative is that verbs with the suffix -kan cause the object to become what is described by the adjective stem.
Causative verbs with the prefix per- with an adjective stem differ from their counterparts with the suffixes -kan and -i in that the former verb takes the meaning of 'making something become greater in its quality of the stem adjective' while the latter verbs take the meaning of 'making something acquire the quality of the stem adjective'. Using the adjective baik(“good”) as an example, we get:
Although proscribed by the DBP, this prefix is often used alongside the causative-kan suffix so that a word like perbaik(“to improve”) would often be used in the form perbaikkan instead. This proscribed usage is different from that of the per- -kan circumfix.
Nik Safiah Karim, Abdul Hamid Mahmood, Farid M. Onn, Hashim Haji Musa (2015) “7.3.2.1 (v) Awalan mempeR-”, in Tatabahasa Dewan (in Malay), pages 179–181
Further reading
“per-” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.
Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen; et al. (2023) “*paR-₂”, in the CLDF dataset from The Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (2010–), →DOI