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I'm new, and this is my very first affix riddle! Thanks for letting me join in.

My prefix survives above the tree line without you.

My infix makes 500 minus 9.

My suffix is always a little amped up, or maybe down?

What process am I?

Hint:

500 is not a number

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  • $\begingroup$ I fear I was overly vague, so I edited the question to clarify that the answer is a process, and added a hint. Chalk it up to a noob mistake. $\endgroup$
    – will
    Commented Apr 18, 2022 at 22:09
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    $\begingroup$ rot13(Va Rkpry, VFAHZORE(500) ergheaf GEHR. Bar bs lbh vf pbashfrq! ;)) $\endgroup$
    – SteveV
    Commented Apr 19, 2022 at 0:36
  • $\begingroup$ rot13(Nf n sryybj rkpry areq, V srry yvxr V jnyxrq evtug vagb gung bar! Jryy cynlrq.) $\endgroup$
    – will
    Commented Apr 19, 2022 at 1:41

2 Answers 2

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My prefix survives above the tree line without you

Init : Inuit - u, as they live at a latitude higher than trees can grow.

My infix makes 500 minus 9

iat : Fiat - F, as the 500 is the city car and F is atomic symbol number 9.

My suffix is always a little amped up, or maybe down?

ion : the charged particle which may be positive or negative.

Welcome to Puzzling and you will have passed the

initiation!

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    $\begingroup$ NICE! That's actually really clever. I was hung up on ALPINE for the first and couldn't think past that. +1 for you! $\endgroup$
    – user79541
    Commented Apr 19, 2022 at 14:49
  • $\begingroup$ That was fun for me. Did I make it too easy, though? I imagine there's a razor's edge between too vague and too easy. $\endgroup$
    – will
    Commented Apr 19, 2022 at 14:50
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    $\begingroup$ It was tough! I thought of the middle first but was stuck on the prefix with a high altitude chiru or for the suffix a try (rugby touchdown) and thought you might be finding your feet in podiatry or as a chiropractor - the intro on joining was a good help:) $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Commented Apr 19, 2022 at 15:00
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I think you may be a

Rixdaler which is an alternate spelling of Ruksdaalder, a Dutch 2 1/2 guilder piece

My prefix survives above the tree line without you

Rix is a dialect variant of Rush, specifically the meaning of: any of various plants especially of the genera Juncus and Scirpus. Juncus trifidus (Highland rush) as an example is found in boreal and alpine cliffs, ridges and plateaus above treeline.

My infix makes 500 minus 9

IXD is one way to write 491 in Roman numerals, though CDXCI is the proper way.

My suffix is always a little amped up, or maybe down?

Daler - Daler Mehndi is an Indian performer/singer. In such a role he is amped up? Currently he's facing criminal charges for human trafficking, thus amped down?

Additional note:

As @z100 points out, there is also a Rix-dollar (hyphenated per Merriam-Webster). This would make the suffix "dollar" which is up or down with regard to AMP (a crypto currency)? Though I don't particularly feel strongly that "daler" is what was intended, I don't feel any better about this version mainly because of the hyphen. Now if the infix clue was 9 minus 500, then ix - d would make much more sense to me!

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  • $\begingroup$ Rixdollar also possible with Dollar as a suffix, which is from the enigmatic point of wiev not so good as the root of an entire word. Try quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/qat with .ixd. $\endgroup$
    – z100
    Commented Apr 15, 2022 at 20:22
  • $\begingroup$ Nope, but I learned something new there. 0 of 3. $\endgroup$
    – will
    Commented Apr 15, 2022 at 21:10

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