on- - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
on- prefix Un-. (Note: some forms in on- or un- correspond to standard ones in in- or im-, e.g. ondecent/undecent = indecent, onpossible/unpossible = impossible). [oed on- prefix4 frequent Middle English, early Modern English, and dialect variant of un-1; snd on- prefix2 a formal variant of un-, now obsolete, with negative force, sometimes also corresponding to English reversive or privative prefixes dis- or in-, and chiefly used before adjectives or adverbs]
Ulst.:
1860 Patterson Belfast Provincialisms 8 oneasy, oninjured, onopened … = uneasy, uninjured, unopened.
1895 MacManus Leadin’ Road He lived, an ondependent private gintleman, himself and his mother, for the rest of their days.
1978 Pepper See Me 16 And to emphasise how on-ward the people are, mention might be made of their insistence in substituting ‘on’ for ‘in’ at every opportunity.
U.S.:
1867 Lowell Biglow Papers, U [in the Yankee dialect] always becomes o in the prefix un (except unto).
1899 Green Virginia Word-Book 260 = a prefix, is un; as ondo (undo), ondress (undress), ontie: ‘Don’t you see your shoe is ontied?’
1909 Payne Word-list East Alabama 354 = un-. Common in such words as onnatural, onlucky, oncivil, etc.
1916 Combs Old Early English 294 In, im, and un are often used interchangeably … ingrateful.
