Comments:

1. In this table we've restricted our attention to prefixes whose length is 2-4 letters, for the reasons explained in the text.
2. The prefixes labeled with a "+" sign at the "Meaning" column were added as this article was typed up, and were not a part of the initial list of prefixes.
3. We emphasize again that not all prefixes listed below are of equal importance. Some, such as בני or מלך are very natural and are used extensively in biblical sources. Others are used less extensively. We warn our readers against cutting the list of prefixes into "more important prefixes" and "less important prefixes" according to some arbitrary criteria. The human eye is surprisingly good at detecting patterns, even within random data (see e.g. [BW]). Once you have stared at the data shown here for a sufficiently long time, you may fool yourself into thinking that you've discovered a pattern which is "extremely unlikely to be due to chance alone". If you insist on attempting such a subdivision, the only reliable way to do so is by turning to a third party who has not seen the numerical data on this table and on table 4, and by phrasing your request to him/her in completely general terms.
4. We emphasize that we did not suppress any prefixes that we have examined. Barring unlikely technical glitches, every prefix (other than the 5-letter מלבוש, משפחת and נימוס) we ever tried is here or in table 3.