Words With Bound Morphemes

A number of words have bound morphemes. They cannot occur independently but must always be attached to another form. The following words have bound morphemes from Latin:

conceive contain
deceive detain
perceive pertain
receive retain

The base of conceive is ceive and the affix is con. In the word detain, the base is tain and the affix is de. The words in the list are semantically opaque because the precise meaning is not evident.

Let us analyze the etymology of the words in the list. The affix -con means with and the base ceive means take. To conceive a child is to take a child in the womb who will be with the mother until birth. The same affix is present in contain. The base tain is from Latin and means hold. To contain is to hold inside or within an object.

The affix -de means from. To deceive is to take from the truth. In other words, it means to mislead. The word detain means to hold from. In other words, the individual is held and prevented from going to his or her destination.

The affix -per has the meaning of through. To perceive is to become aware through the senses. The word pertain means to belong. The prefix -per means through and the base tain is hold. To hold through is to stretch and to reach. To pertain is to relate and apply to a particular area.

In the words receive and retain, the prefix -re means back. The meaning is different from that of the prefix in redo. In this case the prefix means again. However, in return, it is clear that -re means back and not again.

The word receive literally means to take back. However, the current meaning is simply to get. The word retain means to hold back. To hold back is to keep.

Words with bound morphemes tend to be semantically opaque. Neither the prefix nor the base can occur in isolation. Unless English speakers are familar with Latin, the meanings of the morphemes are not likely to be clear.