hibit

The root hibit is the combining form of Latin habēre, "to have, to hold." When you hold something, you also control it — and hibit is really about controlling what you hold: whether you put it out where people can see it, keep it pulled back, or block it off entirely. The prefix tells you the direction of that control.

Start with ex- (out): exhibit = hold out. You take what you have and hold it out into the open for everyone to look at — a painting, a fossil, a piece of evidence in court. The noun exhibition is the public event built around all that holding-out.

Now pull the other way with in- (in, back): inhibit = hold back. Instead of putting it on display, you keep it restrained inside. A shy person's nerves hold them back from speaking; a drug holds back the growth of bacteria. The everyday word inhibited (shy, restrained) is the same image: someone whose impulses are held in.

Go further with pro- (forward, away, in front of): prohibit = hold (something) in front of (someone) so they can't get past — to forbid. A sign that prohibits parking is, in effect, holding a barrier in front of you. From here English built prohibitive — originally "tending to forbid," but it drifted into a money sense: a prohibitive price is so high it effectively forbids you from buying. Prohibitively expensive means expensive to the point of being off-limits.

So the whole family runs along one axis of control: ex- holds it OUT for show, in- holds it BACK in restraint, pro- holds it in your WAY to block you. Same hand gripping the same object — only the direction changes.