If the prefix "a-" means not, shouldn't "await" or "awaiting" mean, "Not waiting?"

If:

• Apolitical means "not political"

and

• Amuse means...well, it should mean, "not thinking"

then why does await or awaiting not mean "not waiting?"

I read this earlier question (Is there a real difference between wait and await?) but this seems interested in the meaning.

One co-worker passed it off as "another example of why English makes no sense."

I'm hoping for a better explanation or at least some literary historic context.

English is a hodgepodge of various linguistic origins.

In this case await means "at wait." It is similar to "a sea" meaning at sea. It is derived from Middle English (and Old English). See this

A- as a prefix in other cases means not. You will note that this usage is frequently pronounced using the long-A sound. This usage is derived from Greek. It is only used with words starting with a consonant. If the word starts with a vowel, an- is used (e.g anionic). See here for reference

The prefix a- has not one source but several different sources. Webster lists six different prefixes of the kind a-.

prefix 1 - shortening of in/on/at

prefix 2 - as in arise. Webster's explanation of this a- is a bit vague and dubious. My idea: arise might be connected with Latin oriri meaning to rise/arise

prefix 3 - as athirst/akin/anew - Webster: from/of

prefix 4 - as achromatic - Webster: without/not - No mention of the Greek prefix.

prefix 5 - related with Latin ab- meaning coming/moving from a point.

prefix 6 - related with Latin ad- meaning moving to a point and similiar ideas.

Source: Webster's Comprehensive Dictionary of the English Language.

I'm not sure whether Webster has all sources. He doesn't show the relation between English await and German er-warten or English awake and German erwecken/erwachen. The German prefix er- also has several meanings; in erwecken/erwachen it expresses the beginning of an action. Er- in erwarten makes warten transitiv. There are a lot more of these connections.

Because the a- prefix came into English from at least two different sources. In ancient Greek, the privative a was used to indicate the negation or absence of the word to which it was attached. It is often used with words with Greek origins, and is treated as "productive," meaning that people still use it to coin new words that negate old ones.

Meanwhile, a- was also used in Middle English as sort of a mild intensifier and flexible preposition, the rules for which are not entirely clear to me. That use of a- is generally confined to words that come from Old or Middle English (await, abed, etc.), is no longer productive, and often feels vaguely archaic.

All general rules are false.  Not all words beginning with “a-” are of the form “not (something)”; otherwise an “atom” would be Dick, Harry, or anybody other than Tom.  Similarly, “pre-” means “before (something)”, but a “preference” is not an earlier “ference”.