• Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
oud-
quickinfo

Oud- is a category-neutral Germanic prefix. It attaches to nouns denoting persons, producing nouns like oud-burgemeester former mayor and oud-lid former member. The general meaning is 'former'.

readmore

The prefix oud- relates to the adjective oud old, but there are reasons to distinguish oud- prefixation from compounds with oud as their leftmost member such as oudtante great-aunt. The general meaning of the prefix is former; the semantics is not monotonous, as derivations with oud- do not denote a subset of the reference of the base: an oud-burgemeester former mayor is not a special type of mayor, but rather someone who used to be a mayor. However, the process is compositional: the meaning of derivations with oud- is a transparent function of the meanings of oud- and the base noun.

extra

(De Haas 1993) (51) give three arguments to distinguish oud- prefixation from compounds with oud as leftmost member. Firstly, the semantic contribution of the prefix oud- is not transparently derivable from the meaning of the adjective: 'former' is not a possible reading of oud in isolation or as a left part of a compound such as oudtante greataunt or oudroze old rose. Secondly, the prefix has a more restricted distribution than the adjective: the prefix attaches only to nouns denoting functions of persons, whereas the examples make clear that the adjective can form compounds with non-animate nouns like bouw building or colour terms such as roze pink. Finally, in certain oud compounds a linking morpheme is possible: both oudejaar New Year's eve and oudjaar New Year's eve are possible and widely used. Such a linking morpheme is systematically impossible in case of the prefix.

According to (Booij 2002, 211), "[t]he prefix oud- is a nice example of grammaticalization. This morpheme also exists as an adjective with the meaning 'old, former', whereas it means 'former' only when used as a prefix, and hence it is an affixoid."

Competing processes: the non-indigenous prefix ex- has a comparable meaning. Many formations with ex- and oud- are lexicalized; once one of these reaches a certain level of entrenchment, the other process is more or less blocked.

Phonological properties: in oud- formations, the main stress is on the base word: oud-burge'meester former mayor, oud-'lid former member. oud- is a non-cohering prefix: it is an independent phonological word, and oud- prefixation respects the morphological boundary: oud-analysten former analysts.

extra

In compounds with oud as leftmost member such as 'oudtante greataunt the stress is on the leftmost part. In this kind of compounding, syllabification need not comply with the morphological boundary: oudtante can be realized as au.tɑn.tə.

Morphological potential: oud- prefixations seldom enter into new derivational processes, but CGN has oud-adellijk [oud-[adel-lijk]] of old gentry; compounds such as oudstudentenvereniging old students union alumni union are attested as well. A form like oudtestamentisch Old Testamentary is an adjective formed by means of the suffix -isch from the univerbation of the fixed expression Oude Testament Old Testament.

extra

Next to words prefixed with oud- such as oud-burgemeester former mayor and compound nouns with adjectival oud old as leftmost member such as oud(e)jaar New Year's eve there are also formations such as oudkomer old-come-er inhabitant that can best be analyzed as synthetic compounds (or, in this case, analogous word formation parallel to nieuwkomer new-come-er newcomer, immigrant), since neither the verb *oudkomen nor the deverbal noun *komer exists.

The morphological status of names of languages such as Oud-Germaans Old Germanic and Oud-Egyptisch is unclear: they can either be analyzed as oud- prefixations of names of languages, or as nominalisations of oud- prefixations of the pertinent adjectives.

Oud- is also quite common in placenames: Oud-Beijerland, Oud-Bennekom, Oud-Blerick, Oud-Heverlee.

References
  • Booij, Geert2002The morphology of DutchOxfordOxford University Press
  • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
printreport errorcite