¿Es posible que palabras iniciadas con "bi" o "pre" no tengan un prefijo?

Question

Español:

Palabras como premio no parecen ser un "mio" que "llega antes", como lo indicaría un prefijo como "pre".

Lo mismo ocurre con biblioteca que no parece ser una "blioteca" "dos veces", como lo indicaría el prefijo "bi".

Por lo tanto me pregunto si habrá casos de palabras como estas parecen indicar. Es decir, ¿hay más palabras que comiencen con un "prefijo" quizás por su origen etimológico y no por la normativa de ser un prefijo que ha alterado el significado de la palabra raíz?

English:

Words like Premio has the prefix "pre" but don't seem to follow its meaning. Premio is not a ´mio´that is ´before´

Same goes for Biblioteca which although has the prefix "bi" does not refer to 2 ´bliotecas´

Am I correct in assuming that neither of these cases are actually using prefixes? This makes me wonder, if that is the case, How can I distinguish between words that are actually using a ´prefijo´ and others that don't?

Answer 1

As in most -if not all- languages, the existence of a prefix -even if very common- does not rule out the existence of words with the same beginning that do not come from the same root. It may be seen as just a coincidence. It may (or may not) be an example of convergent evolution of words of diverse origin through sound change, a late (or old) borrowing from another language, just similar roots with a common beginning, or even something else.

Among words starting with pre- that do not include the meaning of the prefix before (either in its current or ethymological meaning), one may list:

precario, preces, prender, premura, presión, presura, precio and precioso

Examples of words starting with bi-, but without the two meaning:

bilis, bisonte, Bizancio, biología and bibliografía

(as well as derivates and lots of words starting with bio- and biblio-)

Note that in English the same principle applies: both prefixes do exist, and some of the words listed have cognates with alike structures. Particularly, bison (Spanish bisonte) comes from Germanic and got into Spanish through middle English.

---

(Note: The same can be said of suffixes: while -mente usualy forms adverbs, you have mente -a noun- and demente -an adjective-. In English -ly forms adverbs, but you have the nouns belly, lily and the adjectives lonely, lovely. See also this.)