From out of nowhere:

DREADNAUGHT - fear of getting a zero on a test

dreadnaught: a bald Jamaican
behemoth: What be that insect?
bedbugs: what the CIA stuffs into mattresses.

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AFTERMATH - the course that follows algebra
ARCHERY - the science of building Gothic cathedrals
CEMETERY - half a towel
CHARITABLE - dining area for one
CORMORANT - don't look only at the peony buds, look at the roots too and you'll see what I mean
INTERNATIONAL - bury a citizen
KLEENEX - request more alimony from your former spouse
MARGIN - spoil the winning rummy hand
SPECTACLE - those blueprints are laughable

respectable buffet after a funeral

SCHOLARSHIP - an affliction of the uppermost leg joint caused by sitting and studying too long

RHINOCEROS - a Big Box store where you get your proboscis put out of joint

PROBOSCIS - in favor of Middle Management (the "C" is silent)

scholarship: student boaters vessel
abadi'msituation: I'm in the middle of a bad situation

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
abadi'msituation: I'm in the middle of a bad situation

I give up: I have no idea of the original that you're referring to !

quote:

abadI'Msituation

The word "I'm" (in the middle of) a bad situation.

sec ond would be "split second"

troubletrouble: double trouble

Got it. GAMES Magazine called these "Wacky Wordies. SENILFEG would be "mixed feelings".
NOLOSTWHERE was "lost in the middle of nowhere". That's a slightly different mindset.

example - now slight
expert - formerly saucy
exempt - almost full (formerly almost empty)
exhale - unsound
export - starboard and no longing handling shipping
EXIST - no longer the winner, disqualified
extermination - resurrection
exam - dead
exotic - no longer ear related

That'll do for now

exhale: turned into rain

A few more:

exonerate - multiple rates apply now
explain - now complex
extolled - it's a freeway now

and

exhale - no longer Bob

exhume; dead philosopher
extoll: our bell is broken
cinemax: a giant breakfast bun
convertible: a prisoner who swings both ways
disgruntle kick out of the Army
expect: cut off a chicken's beak

disgusted: divorced from Augustus Edward.

exorbitant: a former satellite

EXPATRIOT - civil disorder in Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, instigated by a former team member
EXCORIATE - You can have the rest of the apple
EX POST FACTO - They just fired the mail carrier. No, really!
EXCEL - a retired salesman
EXCITE - Oedipus' Disease

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expatriot: Benedict Arnold
excite: ancient ruins
excel: a part of Alcatraz
exact: cut from a play
exlax: intensify
tanks: you're velcome

EXTRAPOATE - to release from a snare but not until several days later
EXTRAPOLATE - exceedingly courteous
EXCEEDINGLY - like a retired farmer
EXCALIBUR - the size of last year's bullets
EXTRICATE - bid four, made five. Yum!
EXPORTER - I can't Disapparate any more
EXECRATE - to mark the wooden shipping container
EXHORTATION - Don't you come peddling your ass around here any more, you hear?

edited - typo (removed the extra L)

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This theme seems to be taking off.

exasperated - dead
extract - land now underwater
execute - expose fake online profile picture
express - former journo
exceed - germinate

enterprise: a gift for signing up
expired: the church lost its steeple

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sheet metal: a bed cover for robots

And now for something completely different, yet exactly the same:

anew - used
aplenty - few
ascribed - unwritten

Hopefully Proof and Haberdasher will find a few more.

amen: the cry of the nympho
abuttor: a bugger
buttress: female version of abuttor

ABOUT - no fighting allowed
ALLOWED - (Shhh!)
ALIMONY - not enough citric acid
AGRICULTURE - no fraternities allowed
ALIMENTATION - refusal to grieve
AGRAPHOBIA - not afraid of writer's block

With shameless attribution to Isaac Asimov
ANOPTIKON - a magnifying device without lenses
(Asimov also told the story of the Linguistics professor who told his class that a negative means a negative, and a positive means a positive, a double negative means a positive, but there was no language where a double positive means a negative. And then a voice in the rear muttered, "Yeah, yeah...")

Speaking of double negatives,
UNABASHED - hit for a home run
UNAFRAID - loose threads hanging all over the place

and in no particular direction at all -
ANEMONE - a dyslexic foe ("dysphonic"?)

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aspired - flat-topped
abroad - narrow
agreed - generosity
ahead - behind
alight - heavy or dark
aorta - shouldn't
avow - break a promise
avowal - consonant
aroused - disinterested or put to sleep
awoken - put to sleep

AWRY - can't make the pastrami sandwich
ARABLE- the mob has dispersed
ALLEGORY - an armory
ADIABATIC - my blood sugar is under 100
ASTATINE - my cholesterol came down without Lipitor
AERIE - Superior (caution: USn-centric alert)

Why do so many terms for the better looking of the species, involve the lesser looking?

woMAN, woMEN, LADy & feMALE to name a few.

And then there's these ones: aMEN & aGENT

Oh and a couple I missed: sHE & HEr

But back to the a- words:

ayes - no
acute - ugly
around - square
ascent - odourless
avoid - full

abet don't gamble
avow not a promise
aplomb prune
apropodislikes that river

afro - to
afloat - sink
averse - prose
across - calm
aglow - dim
abreast - leg lover
aflame - unlit

Not DIS again!

DISCRIMINATION - malfeasance has been eradicated from the entire country
DISCERN - they're removing the Large Hadron Collider
DISMANTLE - ... and taking out all the old gaslights, too
DISARRAY - OK, you guys, break formation when you go across the bridge
DISPLAY - Macbeth
DISCO DANCER - Let me introduce my Tango partner
DISEASE - discomfiture
except that
DISCOMFITURE - Oh, they took away my candy [Well, close. M, N, it's almost the same]

display: back to work!
disenfranchise: Close the Burger King
inspector: resident gohost
inveigh: opposite of 'oy'

UNNOTICED - refrozen
UNIONIZED - the strikers wouldn't dissociate even when we threw them into the water
UNTENABLE - she'll never be another Bo Derek
UNBELIEVABLE - if you nag enough you might turn begging into egging
UNDERESTIMATE - the guy from Berlin withdrew his approximation
UNABLE - Sorry, I just Caint

abundance; German prom
disable: Take that, my brother.
exalt: remove a computer key
Excalibur: obsolete cartridge size
explain: now a gully

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quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
abundance; German prom

I thought "abundance" was the original name for twerking...

As a highly naïve innocent, I have no idea what "twerking" refers to. Now excuse me while I watch some Miley Cyrus videos.

atop - below
askew - straight
astray - domiciled
aground - in the air or on the sea
along - short
aloud - quiet
ago - stop
again - loss
alack - have
amend - break
aside - central

Not to be picky or anything, but doesn't the 'a-' prefix mean "without", rather than "not"?

...and does APOPLECTIC mean the Pontiff can't read?

quote:

Not to be picky or anything, but doesn't the 'a-' prefix mean "without", rather than "not"?

How about atypical and asymmetric for starters, but I will think of some more if you want them.

.. And amoral and asocial for a couple more, need I go on?

quote:

Originally posted by Greg S:
.. And amoral and asocial for a couple more, need I go on?

That illustrates the problem.
-- AMORAL doesn't mean not moral, as in immoral, but rather indifferent to morals. That's my "without". It's a delicate distinction.
-- ASYMMETRIC is both - without symmetry, non-symmetric.
-- APATHY is another; without feeling, non-feeling.
-- ATYPICAL I give you, but with reservations: it does't mean no type or without a type, just not THIS type.

Any linguists/grammarians out there with real credentials?

You've given me one and that's all I need to have a bit of fun with the game, but from dictionary.com:

a- 1
a reduced form of the Old English preposition on, meaning “on,” “in,” “into,” “to,” “toward,” preserved before a noun in a prepositional phrase, forming a predicate adjective or an adverbial element ( afoot; abed; ashore; aside; away ), or before an adjective ( afar; aloud; alow ), as a moribund prefix with a verb ( acknowledge ), and in archaic and dialectal use before a present participle in -ing ( set the bells aringing ); and added to a verb stem with the force of a present participle ( ablaze; agape; aglow; astride; and originally, awry ).
Origin:
Middle English, late Old English; cf. a2 , nowadays

a- 2
a reduced form of the Old English preposition of: akin; afresh; anew.
Origin:
Middle English; see a3

a- 3
an old point-action prefix, not referring to an act as a whole, but only to the beginning or end: She arose (rose up). They abided by their beliefs (remained faithful to the end).
Origin:
Middle English; Old English a- (unstressed), ǣ-, ā-, ō- (stressed; see abb, woof1 , oakum), rarely or- (see ordeal) ≪ Germanic *uz- < unstressed Indo-European *uss- < *ud-s, akin to out; in some cases confused with a-4 , as in abridge

a- 4
variant of ab- before p and v: aperient; avert.
Origin:
Middle English < Latin ā-, a- (variant of ab- ab-); in some words < French a- < Latin ab-, as in abridge

a- 5
variant of ad-, used: (1) before sc, sp, st ( ascend ) and (2) in words of French derivation (often with the sense of increase, addition): amass.
Origin:
Middle English, in some words < Middle French a- < Latin ad- prefix or ad preposition (see ad-), as in abut; in others < Latin a- (variant of ad- ad-), as in ascend

a- 6
variant of an-1 . before a consonant, meaning “not,” “without”: amoral; atonal; achromatic.

And from World English Dictionary
a- or ( before a vowel ) an- 1

— prefix
not; without; opposite to: atonal ; asocial

[from Greek a-, an- not, without]

an- or ( before a vowel ) an- 1

— prefix

[from Greek a-, an- not, without]

I think there is enough evidence to suggest a- as a prefix before a consonant can mean "NOT"

a-prefix - NOT fixed in advance.

I don't think we're disagreeing.* It certainly can, but equally certainly it doesn't must.

*DISAGREE - to take away the prize for losing.
(speaking of dictionary.com...)

Well. I certainly didn't mean to cast suca apall on the proceedings.

ANTIPHONIES - without the NYC jewelery store, where can we have breakfast?

No problem just running out of ideas.

ado - don't
ashamed - glorified

quote:

I don't think we're disagreeing.* It certainly can, but equally certainly it doesn't must.

If these prefixes in our obscure language all meant the same thing all the time, we wouldn't be playing this game, but the one that has always really got my goat is:

inflammable - not able to be burned

That word was basically abandoned by most technical people several years ago since it was capable of being misunderstood. They opted for flammable since there is no ambiguity.

The ambiguity is the dual meaning of the prefix 'in-,' which can be at one time 'not' and at another 'within'.

Thus 'flame' and 'inflame' are synonyms, both meaning 'burn,' prefix notwithstanding...