英语听力精选进阶版 11219（在线收听）

Dis(s) 

Professor David Crystal 

Prefixes, almost by definition, don't occur as separate words. I 

mean, that's what they're for: they're for modifying a word, 

occurring before a word, and making it change its meaning - 

happy, un-happy,  national, de-nationalise and all this sort of thing. 

They don't normally occur as words on their own. But 

occasionally they do. 

You've perhaps heard 'anti' - he's very 'anti' something, a-n-t-i. 

Or he's very 'pro' something -- well they're prefixes which have 

suddenly become different words. Now they've been around a 

long time. A recent one, an absolutely fascinating one, is this 

prefix 'dis': d-i-s, or sometimes d-i-s-s. It's from the word 

'disrespect', to show disrespect to somebody, from the noun, by 

insulting language, or insulting behaviour. It means basically to put 

somebody down. 

It's American, black English slang really, and it's been around since about 1980. 

And what's happened, it's come to be used as a full verb. You can say now 'I 

dissed him' - to diss, I dissed him - or 'stop dissing her'. And that's the interesting 

thing, that it's the prefix that's become the verb! It's a most remarkable 

development.