um-

• umbe-, umb-

From Middle English um-, umbe-, embe-, from Old English ymb-, ymbe- (“around”), from Proto-Germanic *umbi-, from Proto-Germanic *umbi (“around, about, by, near”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“round about, around”). Cognate with Dutch om- (“around”), German um- (“around”), Latin amb- (“around, about”), Latin ambi- (“both”), Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí, “around, about”), Sanskrit अभि (abhi, “against, about”). More at umbe.

um-

1. (no longer productive, obsolete outside dialectal, chiefly Scotland) Prefix meaning around, about.

• -mu-, MU, Mu, mu

From the preposition um.

um-

1. over, about, around

• IPA^(key): /ʊm/, [ʔʊm]

um- (separable or inseparable)

1. round, round about
2. repeatedly, over again, re-
3. in another way
4. to the ground, down, over

When this prefix is separable, the stress falls on the prefix: ˈumbiegen, ˈumbilden, ˈumdeuten, ˈumbenennen. When inseparable, the stress falls on the root: umˈflattern, umˈfluten, umˈgaukeln, umˈmauern, umˈgeben. The prefix is only unstressed/inseperable when referring to the first meaning. Sometimes this creates contrasting words with opposite meaning, only distinguished in stress and therefore undistinguishable in writing, e.g. umˈfahren (“drive around something”), ˈumfahren (“drive something over”).

um-

1. Class 1 noun prefix; form of umu- used before stems of more than one syllable.

um-

1. Class 3 noun prefix; form of umu- used before stems of more than one syllable.

um-

1. Class 1 noun prefix; form of umu- used before stems of more than one syllable.

um-

1. Class 3 noun prefix; form of umu- used before stems of more than one syllable.

um-

1. Class 1 noun prefix; form of umu- used before stems of more than one syllable.

um-

1. Class 3 noun prefix; form of umu- used before stems of more than one syllable.

From Proto-Austronesian *-um-

um-

1. actor trigger: to do something

   Kumain ako.

   I ate. (I is focused.)

2. no trigger: expresses natural phenomena

   Umulan kanina.

   It rained a while ago. (Nothing is focused.)

3. actor trigger: to become or get

   Parang pumayat si Gloria.

   It looks like Gloria got thinner. (Gloria is focused.)

4. actor trigger: (with root word reduplication) to do something occasionally, at random, a little, a bit, now and then or here and there

   Kumakain-kain ako pag wala akong magagawa.

   I eat a little bit when I have nothing to do. (I is focused.)

• The affix mag- is usually used for verbs which involve an exterior object, whereas um- is used for verbs which don't.

  Nagtanong ako sa guro. = I asked the teacher.

  Umalis na ako. = I already left.

• Mag- is also used for deliberate actions, while um- can be used for involuntary actions.

  Lumalaki ang bata. = The child grew.

• Some words can also change meaning if either one of them is used.

  Root word: alis = to go

  mag-alis = to remove

  umalis = to leave

  Root word: sakay = riding

  magsakay = to load

  sumakay = to ride

From Proto-Nguni *úmu-, from Proto-Bantu *jʊ̀-mʊ̀-.

um-

1. Class 1 noun prefix.

From Proto-Nguni *úmu-, from Proto-Bantu *gʊ́-mʊ̀-.

um-

1. Class 3 noun prefix.

um-

1. Class 1 noun prefix; form of umu- used before stems of more than one syllable.

um-

1. Class 3 noun prefix; form of umu- used before stems of more than one syllable.

• C. M. Doke; B. W. Vilakazi (1972), “um-”, in Zulu-English Dictionary, ISBN 0 85494 027 8: “um-”