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pragmatic [pragmatic 词源字典]: pragmatic: [16] The base *prak-, which produced Greek praktós (source of English practice), also lies behind Greek prágma ‘deed, affair’. From this was derived pragmatikós ‘skilled in affairs’, which passed into English via late Latin pragmaticus.
=> practice[pragmatic etymology, pragmatic origin, 英语词源]
prairie: prairie: [18] Prairie comes ultimately from Latin prātum ‘meadow’ (source also of French pré ‘meadow’). From it was derived Vulgar Latin *prātāria, which passed into English via French prairie. The word was from the start almost exclusively used with reference to the plains of North America.
praise: praise: [13] Despite a certain similarity in form and meaning, praise has no connection with pray. It comes ultimately from Latin pretium ‘price’, which has also given English precious, price, prize, etc. From it was derived the late Latin verb pretiāre ‘value highly, praise’, which English acquired via Old French preisier.
=> precious, price, prize
praxis: praxis: see practice
pray: pray: [13] Latin precārī meant ‘ask for, entreat, pray’ (it has given English deprecate [17] and imprecation [16]). In Vulgar Latin it became *precāre, which passed into English via Old French preier. The noun prayer [13] goes back ultimately to the Latin adjective precārius ‘obtained by asking or praying’ (source also of English precarious), which was derived from precārī.
=> deprecate, imprecation, precarious
preach: preach: [13] Preach goes back ultimately to Latin praedicāre ‘proclaim’ (source also of English predicament and predicate). Its Old French descendant was prechier, whence English preach (English had actually acquired the word before, directly from Latin in the Anglo-Saxon period, as predician ‘preach’, but this had died out before the Old French word arrived). The semantic shift in the Latin verb from ‘proclaiming’ to ‘preaching’ took place in the early Christian period.
=> predicament, predicate
prebend: prebend: [15] A prebend is a salary paid to a clergyman from the revenue of his cathedral. The word comes via Old French prebende from late Latin praebenda ‘salary, pension’. This was a noun use of the gerundive of praebēre ‘give, grant, supply’, and hence meant literally ‘things to be given’. Praebēre was a compound verb formed from the prefix prae- ‘forth’ and habēre ‘have’. In Vulgar Latin, praebenda was altered to *prōbenda, from which English gets provender [14].
=> provender
precarious: precarious: [17] Precarious comes from Latin precārius (source also of English prayer), which meant ‘obtained by asking or praying’. It was originally used in English as a legal term, in which ‘obtained by asking’ had undergone a slight change in focus to ‘held through the favour of another’. This introduced the notion that the favour might be withdrawn, and that the possession was therefore uncertain, and so the adjective soon came to be used for ‘depending on chance or caprice’ and, in the 18th century, ‘risky’.

Latin precārius was derived from prex ‘prayer’, a close relative of precārī ‘ask, entreat, pray’, from which English gets pray.
=> pray
precede: precede: [14] Precede is one of a large family of English words (including concede, proceed, succeed, and of course cede) which go back ultimately to Latin cēdere ‘go away, withdraw, yield’. In this case the ancestor was Latin praecēdere ‘go before’, a compound verb formed with the prefix prae- ‘before’, which English acquired via Old French preceder. Precedent [15] goes back to the Latin verb’s present participle, precession [16] to the late Latin derivative praecessiō.
=> cede, concede, predecessor, proceed, succeed
precinct: precinct: [15] The notion underlying precinct is of ‘encirclement’ or ‘enclosure’. It comes from the past participle of Latin praecingere ‘gird about, surround’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix prae- ‘before, around’ and cingere ‘encircle with a belt’ (source of English cincture [16]). From the underlying notion come the twin modern meanings of an ‘area enclosed by walls’ and a ‘delimited district within a city’ (mainly used in American English).
=> cincture
precious: precious: [13] Latin pretiōsus ‘expensive, valuable, precious’ was derived from pretium ‘price’ (source of English praise, price, and prize). English acquired it via Old French precios. The sense ‘affected’ was introduced from French in the early 18th century.
=> praise, price, prize
precipice: precipice: [16] The etymological notion underlying precipice is of falling ‘headlong’. It comes via French précipice from Latin praecipitium ‘headlong fall, steep place’. This was derived from praecipitāre ‘throw headlong’ (source of English precipitate [16] and precipitous [17]), a verb based on the adjective praeceps ‘headlong, steep’. This in turn was a compound formed from the prefix prae- ‘in front’ and caput ‘head’ (source of English capital, captain, etc).
=> capital, captain, chief
precise: precise: [16] Something that is precise is etymologically ‘cut off in front’. The word was acquired via French précis (subsequently borrowed as the noun précis ‘summary’ in the 18th century) from Latin praecīsus, an adjectival use of the past participle of praecīdere ‘shorten’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix prae- ‘in front’ and caedere ‘cut’ (source also of English concise, decide, excise, etc). The notion of being ‘shortened’ gradually slipped via ‘expressed shortly, leaving out extraneous matter’ to ‘exact’.
=> concise, decide, excise, précis
precocious: precocious: [17] Precocious means etymologically ‘pre-cooked’. It was borrowed from Latin praecox, a derivative of the verb praecoquere ‘cook in advance’, which was a compound formed from the prefix prae- ‘before’ and coquere ‘cook’ (a relative of English cook and kitchen). But coquere was also used metaphorically for ‘ripen’, and so praecox also meant ‘early-ripening’ – whence English precocious ‘developing before its time’. The apricot is etymologically the ‘precocious’ fruit.
=> apricot, cook, kiln, kitchen
precursor: precursor: see course
predatory: predatory: see prey
predecessor: predecessor: [14] Etymologically, predecessor is first cousin to decease, but it has never taken on decease’s connotations of ‘dying’. Both go back to Latin dēcēdere ‘go away’ (a compound verb based on cēdere ‘go away’, source of English cede, concede, precede, etc), whose derived noun dēcessus ‘departure’ came to be used euphemistically for ‘death’ – whence English decease [14].

Combination with the prefix prae- ‘before’ with the derived dēcessor ‘leaver’ produced praedēcessor ‘one who leaves before’. Traces of this original meaning linger in English predecessor (acquired via Old French predecesseur) in the notion of ‘one who left office before the present incumbent took over’.
=> cede, concede, decease, precede, proceed, succeed
predicament: predicament: [14] Predicament was originally a technical term in logic, denoting a ‘category of attributes which may be asserted of a thing’. It broadened out in the 16th century to ‘situation’, but it does not seem to have been until the 18th century that the specific modern sense ‘awkward situation’ became established. The word comes from late Latin praedicāmentum, a derivative of praedicāre ‘proclaim’ (source of English preach and predicate [16]). This was a compound verb formed from the prefix prae- ‘in front of’, hence ‘in public’ and dicāre ‘make known’.
=> preach, predicate
predicate: predicate: see indicate
preen: preen: [14] Preen is generally taken to be an alteration of prune ‘cut branches’, under the influence of another now obsolete verb preen ‘pierce’, a descendant of the Old English noun prēon ‘pin’ (the notion presumably being of a bird ‘piercing’ its feathers with its beak when cleaning them).
=> prune