Etymology Dictionary

UNDER-,  prefix, beneath.  (E.)   The same as the word Under.   Very common; the chief words with this prefix are under-bred, -current, -done, -gird (Acts, xxvii. 17), under-go (A.S. undergán, Bosworth), under-graduate, i.e. a student who is under a graduate, one who has not taken his degree, under-ground, -growth, under-hand, adv., secretly, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 34, also as adj., As You Like It, i. 1. 146, under-lay (A.S. underlecgan, Ælfric's Grammar, ed. Zupitza, p. 190, l. 5), under-lie (A.S. underlicgan, Bosworth), under-line.   Also under-ling, Gower, C. A. iii. 80, l. 10, Layamon, 19116, with double dimin. suffix -l-ing.   Also under-mine, Wyclif, Matt. vi. 20, early version; under-m-ost, with double superl. suffix, as explained under Aftermost; under-neath, M.E. vndirneþ, Chaucer, tr. of Boethius, b. iii. pr. 5, l. 2074, compounded like Beneath, q.v.   Also under-plot, sb., -prop, vb., -rate, -sell; -set, Ancren Riwle, p. 254, l. 5; under-sign; under-stand, q.v.; under-state; under-take, q.v.; under-tone, -value, -wood (Ben Jonson), -write, -writer.