Contra (was: Offensive stress (was: those irregular prepositions)

Charlie wrote:
> >caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@... schrieb:
>
> >> Actually, in this expression, "con" is short for
> >> "contra" which does mean "against." It has nothing
> >> to do with "with," except in its derivation: contra
> >> < a PIE suffixed form *kom-tra.
>
> >Steven Williams <feurieaux@...> wrote:
>
> >Oh, really? I had no idea. I thought they were two
> >distinct lexemes, 'con' and 'contra', and that 'con'
> >was the form of 'cum' used in prefixes and such.
>
> >What did *tra mean in PIE?
>
> You got me!  The AHD PIE appendix doesn't say.  It does that a lot.
> I, too, would like to know its origin.  Did someone just pick it out
> of the air ("I know.  Let's add "-tra" to "cum," pronounce
> it "contra" & let it mean "against"!) or does it, too, have a known
> etymology?
"Contra" looks to me like one of those Lat. prepositions derived from (old)
adjective(?) roots:-- super-/supra, inter-/intra, exter-/extra etc., except
there are no comparative/superlative forms from *conter-  (or are there?
conterior, contremus???-- contrarius, yes)

Ray Brown has previously explained these formations, I know.