There are a lot of similar prefixes (and suffixes, and roots). Some of the redundancy is because it comes from different languages. (For example, what is the difference between sept- and hept-? Sept- is from Latin, and hept- is from Greek.)
On the other hand, sometimes the same spelling means different things because it comes from both languages. (For instance, acr- in Greek means 'high' like in acrobat, whereas in Latin it means 'sharp' or 'bitter' like in acrimony.)
There are also some subtle differences in the meaning of the words in the original language. (For instance ab- and de- are both Latin, meaning 'away'. However, ab- was used as an ablative noun and de- was a preposition. You couldn't use them the same way, even if they had a lot in common.)
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