a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin ( decide ); also used to indicate privation, removal, and separation ( dehumidify ), negation ( demerit; derange ), descent ( degrade; deduce ), reversal ( detract ), intensity ( decompound ). Cf. di- 2 , dis- 1 .
[ ME de-, prefixal use of de (prep.) from, away from, of, out of; in some words, de- or dis- DIS- 1 ]