anti-bullying

The term is a modern compound, formed by directly combining the established English prefix 'anti-' with the gerund 'bullying'. The prefix 'anti-' originates from the Greek preposition antí, meaning 'against', which passed into Latin and subsequently into English via French, retaining its core sense of opposition. The word 'bullying' derives from the noun 'bully', which in the 17th century meant a 'fine fellow', but later, in the 18th century, its meaning inverted to signify a 'harasser of the weak'. The compound 'anti-bullying' thus logically constructs its meaning as 'opposed to or designed to prevent the act of harassment and intimidation', reflecting a direct and transparent morphological process in contemporary English word formation.