Learn English – Words with “bi-” prefix that no longer mean “two”

On the Wiktionary definition of nonspecific, it notes:

Synonyms

unspecific (less common), inspecific (much less common)

The entry for inspecific does include quotations.

Google n-grams shows for nonspecific,unspecific,inspecific that the ratios between them is approximately 1000:100:1 respectively, i.e. for every 1000 uses of the word nonspecific, there is only 1 use of inspecific. This makes it almost unheard of by most people.

As an example, my browser's spellchecker says inspecific is misspelt. So you can use inspecific, but you need to expect that you will be continuously challenged about it. You can avoid being challenged every time by using nonspecific instead, as it is the most common of the three words.

A- :

• prefix meaning "not," from Greek a-, an- "not," from PIE root *ne "not" (see un-).

There are quite a lot, but many of them are not common. Here is a list.

As for await:, the suffix 'a' has a different origin, from 'ad' (meaning 'to').

• early 13c., awaiten, from Old North French awaitier (Old French agaitier) "to lie in wait for, watch, observe," from a- "to" (see ad-) + waitier "to watch" (see wait (v.)). Originally especially with a hostile sense. Related: Awaited; awaiting.

Ad:

• word-forming element expressing direction toward or in addition to, from Latin ad "to, toward" in space or time; "with regard to, in relation to," as a prefix, sometimes merely emphatic, from PIE *ad- "to, near, at" (cognate with Old English æt; see at). Simplified to a- before sc-, sp- and st-; modified to ac- before many consonants and then re-spelled af-, ag-, al-, etc., in conformity with the following consonant (as in affection, aggression). In Old French, reduced to a- in all cases (an evolution already underway in Merovingian Latin), but written forms in French were refashioned after Latin in 14c. and English did likewise 15c. in words it had picked up from Old French. In many cases pronunciation followed the shift.