Miss- ‘wrong’ (like English ‘mis-’)der Misserfolg ‘failure/fiasco’, der Missbrauch ‘abuse/improper use’,
das Missverständnis ‘misunderstanding’Neben- ‘secondary/incidental’das Nebenargument ‘secondary argument’, das Nebenfach ‘subsidiary
subject of study’, die Nebenwirkung ‘side effect’Nicht- ‘non-’der Nichtraucher ‘non-smoker’, der Nichtschwimmer ‘non-swimmer’,
der/die Nichtversicherte ‘uninsured person’Riesen- ‘enormous’der Riesenerfolg ‘huge success’, das Riesenproblem ‘huge problem’, die
Riesensumme ‘huge amount (of money)’Schein- ‘illusory/not real’das Scheinargument ‘bogus argument’, der Scheinerfolg ‘illusory
success’, die Scheinehe ‘fictitious marriage’Scheiß- (colloquial, potentially offensive) expresses contempt and dislike (see also
58.2 and 104 )das Scheißargument ‘rotten/poor argument’, die Scheißehe ‘awful
marriage’Teil- ‘part/partial’der Teilerfolg ‘partial success’, die Teilzeitarbeit ‘part-time work’Un- gives a negative (see also 47.5 and 75.5)der Unsinn ‘nonsense’, das Unglück ‘unhappiness’. Some of the words
it forms have unusual nuances: das Ungewitter ‘thunder storm’, der
Unmensch ‘inhumane person/monster’, die Unmenge ‘huge quantity’Ur- ‘original/ancient’die Urquelle ‘original source’, der Urgroßvater ‘great-grandfather’54.2 Meaning and gender of compound nouns
(a) The final element in a compound determines the meaning and gender of the whole
(see 26.1):die Maschine ‘machine’
das Büro ‘office’
die Büromaschine is a particular kind of machine: an ‘office machine’
der Büromaschinenhersteller is a particular kind of Hersteller ‘manufacturer’: a
‘manufacturer of office machines’(b) A ‘linking’ letter, (e)s or (e)n, is sometimes found between the main elements of the
compound word:54
WORD STRUCTURE/FORMATION