Vocabulary: over- and under- prefixes (lesson & exercise)

Lesson:

It's said that there are upwards of a million words in the English language. Of course, it's impossible to learn every word: the average native speaker is said to know only about 30,000. However, to increase your vocabulary, it's very useful to be able to break a word down into parts and guess its meaning from this. A very easy starting place is to look at prefixes and suffixes, and an ideal starting point would be the prefixes 'over-' and 'under-'.

Generally speaking, we can say that these prefixes carry the meaning of 'too much' or 'too little (i.e. not enough)'. For example, a person who ate too much might hold his stomach and complain that he had overeaten. So we can see that 'over-' can attach to verbs and, in this case, changes the meaning from 'to eat' to 'to eat too much'.

Usually, you will find these prefixes attached to verbs or to adjectives. Any good dictionary should contain a nice list. Here are a few examples:

• overbook (v.): to book too many tickets on a plane, in a hotel, etc.
• overcharge (v.): to charge too much money for something.
• overcrowded (adj.): having too many people or things in it; probematically crowded.
• overcook (v.): to cook something too long.
• overdo (v.): to exaggerate.
• overdrawn (adj.): having too much money drawn from a bank account.
• overdressed (adj.): wearing too much or too formal clothing.
• overgrown (adj.): grown too much; for plants, being excessively and problematically big.
• overload (v.): to load too much onto something, e.g. a truck.
• overpopulated (adj.): for a place, having too high a population.
• overprotective (adj.): trying too hard to protect someone, esp. a child.
• overqualified (adj.): having too many qualifications for a job.
• overreact (v.): to react in an exaggerated way.
• overworked (adj.): being forced to work too much.

The prefix 'under-' works in much the same way. Understanding, for example, that the adjective 'underfunded' means 'receiving not enough funding', you should probably be able to guess the meaning of these words: underachieve (v.), underage (adj.), underdeveloped (adj.), underestimate (v.), undernourished (adj.), underpaid (adj.), underrate (v.), undersell (v.), understaffed (adj.) and undervalue (v.). The following exercise will let you test yourself.

Exercise:

Fill in the blanks using one of the words on the list below (not all of the words on the list are acceptable words, but all of the correct answers are).

1. The municipal government is trying to find a solution to the problem of __________ in the city's downtown area.
2. The police closed down the bar for serving drinks to __________ people.
3. We had expected 250 guests, but almost 500 people came. We really __________ how many people would come.
4. The HR manager looked at my three university degrees and told me I was __________ for the job.
5. I wore a t-shirt to the part, and everyone else was wearing suits. I felt so embarrassed because I was __________.
6. I told her the news and she almost had a heart attack. I don't know why she __________ like that.
7. People who work in this factory are usually __________ and __________: their job is difficult and they earn little money.
8. If you __________ the donkey, you might break its back!
9. She always spends the whole day dreaming of magical castles and handsome princes. She has an __________ imagination.

• overactive / underactive
• overage / underage
• overdressed / underdressed
• overestimated / underestimated
• overload / underload
• overpaid / underpaid
• overpopulation / underpopulation
• overqualified / underqualified
• overreacted / underreacted
• overworked / underworked