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pretend [pretend 词源字典]: pretend: [14] To pretend something is etymologically to ‘hold it out’ – as an excuse, or as something it is not. The word comes from Latin praetendere, a compound verb formed from the prefix prae- ‘before’ and tendere ‘stretch’ (source of English tend, tense, etc).
=> extend, tend, tense[pretend etymology, pretend origin, 英语词源]
pretext: pretext: see text
pretty: pretty: [OE] In Old English pretty (or prættig, as it was then) meant ‘clever’ in a bad sense – ‘crafty, cunning’. Not until the 15th century had it passed via ‘clever’, ‘skilfully made’, and ‘fine’ to ‘beautiful’. It was a derivative of prætt ‘trick, wile’, which came from a prehistoric West Germanic *pratt- (source also of Dutch part ‘trick’).
prevaricate: prevaricate: [16] Etymologically, prevaricate means ‘walk crookedly’, and it goes back ultimately to a Latin adjective meaning ‘knockkneed’, varus. From this was derived the verb vāricāre ‘straddle’, which was combined with the prefix prae- ‘before, beyond’ to produce praevāricārī ‘walk crookedly’, hence ‘deviate’. This developed in English to ‘deviate from straightforward behaviour’, hence ‘be evasive, equivocate’.
prevent: prevent: [15] If you prevent someone, you ‘come before’ them (and indeed that literal meaning of the verb survived for some time: Thomas Cromwell wrote in 1538 ‘I have sent it unto him after the departure of the said Muriell, to the intent he might prevent the ambassadors post and you have leisure to consult and advise upon the same’; and as late as 1766 we find in Frances Sheridan’s Sidney Biddulph ‘I am an early riser, yet my lord V – prevented me the next morning, for I found him in the parlour when I came downstairs’).

The word comes from Latin praevenīre, a compound verb formed from the prefix prae- ‘before’ and venīre ‘come’. Already in Latin, though, it had progressed semantically from ‘come before’ via ‘act in advance of, anticipate’ to ‘hinder’, and this meaning emerged in English in the 16th century.
=> adventure, venue
prey: prey: [13] Prey comes via Old French preie from Latin praeda ‘booty’ (from which was derived the verb praedārī ‘plunder’, source of English depredation [15] and predatory [16]). This was a contraction of an earlier praeheda, a noun formed with the prefix prae- ‘before’ from the same base (*hed- ‘seize’, source also of English get) as produced the verb praehendere ‘seize’.

This has been a rich source of English vocabulary, contributing through different channels such a varied assortment as prehensile [18], prison, and prize ‘something seized in war’, not to mention prefixed forms like apprehend. comprehend [14], comprise [15], impregnable [15], reprehensible, reprieve, and surprise. It is also the ancestor of French prendre ‘take’.
=> apprehend, comprehend, comprise, depredation, impregnable, predatory, prehensile, prison, reprehensible, reprieve, surprise
price: price: [13] The Latin word for ‘price’ was pretium (it was probably derived ultimately from the Indo-European preposition *preti ‘back’, and so etymologically denoted ‘recompense’). Its descendants have spread through most modern western European languages, including French prix, Italian prezzo, Spanish precio, German preis, and Dutch prijs.

The last two were borrowed from Old French pris, the ancestor of modern prix, as was English price. The word differentiated in the 16th century into price and prize; and derivatives of the Latin original have given English appreciate, depreciate [15], praise, and precious.
=> appraise, appreciate, depreciate, grand prix, praise, precious
prick: prick: [OE] Prick is a word of the Low German area, which English shares with Dutch (prik). Its ultimate origins, though, are not known. The earliest record of its use for ‘penis’ is from the late 16th century, and in the 16th and 17th centuries women employed it as a term of endearment – a usage which did not go down well in all quarters: ‘One word alone hath troubled some, because the immodest maid soothing the young man, calls him her Prick. He who cannot away with this, instead of “my Prick”, let him write “my Sweetheart”,’ H M, Colloquies of Erasmus 1671. Prickle [OE] is a diminutive derivative.
=> prickle
pride: pride: [OE] The original Old English noun for ‘pride’ was pryte, a derivative of the adjective prūd ‘proud’ (ancestor of modern English proud). This changed in the 11th century to pryde, probably under the influence of the adjective, and subsequently developed to pride. There is an isolated example of the use of the word for a ‘group of lions’ from the late 15th century, but the modern usage seems to be a 20th-century revival.
=> proud
priest: priest: [OE] Priest goes back ultimately to the Greek noun presbúteros, which meant literally ‘elder’ (it was formed from the comparative of the adjective présbus ‘old’). It was used in the Greek translation of the New Testament for ‘elder of the church, priest’. It was borrowed into Latin as presbyter (source of English presbyterian [17]). This subsequently became reduced to *prēster (as in Prester John), which was taken over by Old English as prēost, ancestor of modern English priest.
=> presbyterian
prim: prim: [18] Prim etymologically means ‘first’. It comes from Old French prime, the feminine form of prin ‘fine, excellent’, which went back to Latin prīmus ‘first’ (source of English prime). The English meaning developed through a derogatory ‘overrefined’.
=> first, prime
prima donna: prima donna: see dame
prime: prime: [OE] Latin prīmus ‘first’ came from an earlier *prīsmo-, which went back ultimately to Indo-European *pro ‘before, in front’ (ancestor also of English first). English first acquired it direct from Latin in the Anglo-Saxon period as an ecclesiastical term for the earliest of the canonical hours, and this is the source of the modern English noun uses of the word (as in ‘in one’s prime’).

The adjective prime was borrowed in the 14th century from Old French prime. English has a wide range of words that go back to derivatives of Latin prīmus, including premier [15], prim, primal [17], primary [15], primate [13], primitive [14], prince, principal, and principle. The trade-name Primus was first used for a sort of paraffin lamp in the early years of the 20th century.
=> first, premier, prim, primitive, prince, principle
prince: prince: [13] A prince is etymologically someone who ‘takes first place’, hence a ‘leader’. The word comes via Old French prince from Latin princeps, a compound formed from prīmus ‘first’ (source of English prime) and capere ‘take’ (source of English captive, capture, etc). (German fürst ‘prince’ was derived from Old High German furist ‘first’, apparently in imitation of the Latin word.) The derivative princess [14] was also acquired from Old French.
=> first, prime
principle: principle: [14] Frequently confused, principal [13] and principle come from distinct sources – but both sources were derived ultimately from Latin princeps ‘chief’ (from which English gets prince). Principal goes back via Old French principal to Latin principālis ‘first, original’, while principle comes from *principle, an assumed Anglo-Norman variant of Old French principle, which went back to Latin principium ‘beginning, foundation’.
=> first, prime, prince
print: print: [13] Latin premere meant ‘press’ (its past participial stem press- underlies English press). It passed into Old French as preindre, whose past participle formed the basis of a noun preinte ‘impression, impressed mark’ – source of English print. The verb first used for the activity of ‘printing books’ was the derived imprint [14] (‘Because this said book is full of wholesome wisdom … I have purposed to imprint it’, William Caxton, Game and Play of the Chess 1474), but print soon followed at the beginning of the 16th century.
=> press
prior: prior: Prior the ecclesiastical rank [11] and prior ‘previous’ [18] are ultimately the same word. Both go back to Latin prior ‘former, superior’, a comparative formation based on the Old Latin preposition pri ‘before’. This came in postclassical times to be used as a noun meaning ‘superior officer, administrator’, and it was taken over as such into the terminology of the monastic foundations.
prism: prism: [16] The etymological idea underlying the word prism is of its shape, that of a ‘sawn-off’ piece. It comes via medieval Latin prisma from Greek prísma, a derivative of the verb prízein ‘saw’. Its optical application emerged in English at the beginning of the 17th century.
prison: prison: [12] Like comprehend, prehensile, etc, prison goes back ultimately to Latin praehendere ‘seize’. From this was derived the noun praehensiō ‘seizure’, later contracted to prēnsiō, which passed into Old French as prisun. By now it had come to be used specifically for ‘imprisonment’, and from this it moved on in due course to the concrete ‘place of imprisonment’ – both senses which entered English from Old French in the 12th century.
=> apprehend, comprehensive, prehensile, prize, reprehensible
private: private: [14] Latin prīvus meant ‘single, individual’. From it was derived the verb prīvāre, source of English deprive [14] and privation [14]. This originally meant ‘make solitary, isolate’, and although it later moved on metaphorically to ‘bereave, deprive’, its earliest sense was preserved in the adjective formed from its past participle prīvātus.

This denoted ‘belonging to the individual alone’, hence ‘not belonging or related to the state’. English has acquired the word twice: first, via Old French, as the now almost archaic privy [13], and later, directly from Latin, as private. Privilege [12] comes via Old French privilege from Latin prīvilēgium, a compound formed from prīvus and lēx ‘law’ (source of English legal) which etymologically meant ‘law affecting an individual’.
=> deprive, privilege, privy