C words

Welsh General / Questions
1

I feel daunted by new Welsh words that begin with c, there are just so many of them. Can cy, cyd, cyf, cym, cyn ever be regarded as prefixes, can I get a feel of what kind of word it’s going to be, before I reach, yet again, for the dictionary.

2

Yes, I’d say they are prefixes, often with a meaning similar to together/con/co- (cyd/cym/cyf) or before/ex- (cyn) in English e.g. cydffurfio con-form, cyfatebu cor-respond, cynfyd antiquity (lit. earlier world) and millions more. One of my favourites at the moment is cydwybodol con-scientious

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3

Now there’s a word whose meaning eludes me in both languages😀

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4

Thanks Louis, yes, millions more. So I could be making friends with these words by delving into the root meaning, and presumably I can persuade myself it’s worth the effort because I can acquire two words for the price of one.

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5

Thanks to this programme on Radio Cymru:

…I now know that the “ad-” prefix means “re-” in the sense of doing something again. “ad-drefnu” is to “reorganise”.

I suppose that “ail” is similar, but maybe “ad-” is used in more “official”-type contexts.

(“Codi trethi”, gyda llaw, is to “raise taxes”, something we all love! :slight_smile: ).

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6

…re-view…