Possible Duplicate:
Why “unequal” but “inequality”?
Origins of negative prefixes like in-, un-, il-, ir-, dis-, a-
There are a lot of prefixes for meaning "opposite". For example, dis-, un-, in-.
- dissatisfied
- unstable
- incoherent
I was wondering why there isn't just one prefix meaning "opposite" that could be used for all words. Is there a specific reason behind it? I found this link:
http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/prefixes.htm
It sort of explains what each prefix means, but still un- and in- seem to have a lot in common. I am just wondering why have more than one.
