英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

promiscuous [promiscuous 词源字典]: promiscuous: see mix
[promiscuous etymology, promiscuous origin, 英语词源]
promise: promise: [14] Latin prōmittere originally meant simply ‘send forth’ (it was a compound verb formed from the prefix prō- ‘forward’ and mittere ‘send’, source of English mission, missile, transmit, etc). But it soon evolved metaphorically via ‘say in advance, foretell’ to ‘cause to expect’ and hence ‘promise’ – the sense adopted into English via its past participle prōmissum.
=> admit, commit, missile, mission, submit, transmit
promontory: promontory: see prominent
promotion: promotion: see motor
prompt: prompt: [14] Latin prōmere meant ‘bring out, show’ (it was a compound verb formed from the prefix prō- ‘forward, forth’ and emere ‘take’, source also of English assume [15], example, exempt, peremptory [16], redeem, and sample). Its past participle was promptus, and this was used as an adjective in which the notion of ‘shown, manifest’ evolved via ‘ready at hand, available’ to ‘quick, punctual’ – whence English prompt. In Spanish, Latin promptus became pronto, which was borrowed into English in the mid-19th century.
=> assume, example, exempt, peremptory, redeem, sample
promulgate: promulgate: [16] Promulgate owes its existence to an analogy drawn by the Romans between ‘milking’ and ‘bringing out into the light of day’. The Latin verb for ‘milk’ was mulgēre (source of English emulsion). It was used metaphorically for ‘cause to emerge’, and combination with the prefix prō- ‘forth, out’ produced prōmulgāre ‘make known publicly, publish’ – whence English promulgate.
=> emulsion
pronounce: pronounce: [14] Latin nuntius meant ‘messenger’. From it was derived the verb nuntiāre ‘announce’, which has formed the basis of English announce [15], annunciation [14], denounce [13], pronounce, and renounce [14]. Pronounce itself goes back to Latin prōnuntiāre ‘proclaim’, formed with the prefix prō- ‘forth, out, in public’. Its specific application to the ‘way in which a person speaks’ emerged in English in the early 17th century.
=> announce, denounce, nuncio, renounce
pronto: pronto: see prompt
proof: proof: [13] Proof and prove are of course closely related. Both go back ultimately to Latin probāre ‘test, prove’. From this in post-classical times was derived the noun proba ‘proof’, which passed into English via Old French preve as pref. In the 14th and 15th centuries this gradually changed in the mainstream language to proof, due to the influence of the verb prove.
=> probe, prove
propaganda: propaganda: [18] English gets the word propaganda from the term Propaganda Fide, the name of a Roman Catholic organization charged with the spreading of the gospel. This meant literally ‘propagating the faith’, prōpāgānda being the feminine gerundive of Latin prōpāgāre, source of English propagate [16]. Originally prōpāgāre was a botanical verb, as its English descendant remains, only secondarily broadening out metaphorically to ‘extend, spread’.

It was derived from the noun prōpāgo ‘cutting, scion’, which in turn was formed from the prefix prō- ‘forth’ and the base *pāg- ‘fix’ (source of English pagan, page, pale ‘stake’, etc).
=> pagan, page, pale, propagate
propel: propel: see pulse
proper: proper: [13] Proper originally meant ‘belonging to itself, particular to itself’ (a sense now defunct in English except in certain fossilized contexts, such as the astronomical term proper motion). It comes via Old French propre from Latin prōprius ‘one’s own’, which may have been a lexicalization of the phrase prō prīvō, literally ‘for the individual’ (prīvus is the source of English private). The word developed widely in meaning in Latin, but its main modern English senses, ‘correct’ and ‘morally right’, are of later evolution. Appropriate [15] goes back to a late Latin derivative.
=> appropriate, property
property: property: [13] Property and propriety [15] are doublets – that is to say, they have the same ancestor, but have diverged over the centuries. In this case the ancestor was Latin prōprietās ‘ownership’, a derivative of prōprius (from which English gets proper). It passed into Old French as propriete, which originally reached English via Anglo-Norman proprete as property, and was subsequently reborrowed direct from Old French as propriety (this to begin with denoted ‘property’, and did not begin to develop its present-day meaning until the 17th century). Proprietary [15] came from the late Latin derivative prōprietārius; and proprietor [17] was formed from proprietary by substituting the suffix -or for -ary.
=> proper, proprietary, propriety
prophet: prophet: [12] A prophet is etymologically someone who ‘speaks for’ another. The word comes via Old French prophete and Latin prophēta from Greek prophétēs, a compound noun formed from the prefix pro- ‘for’ and -phētēs ‘speaker’ (a derivative of phánai ‘speak’, which goes back to the same Indo-European base, *bha- ‘speak’, as produced English fable, fate, etc).

It meant literally ‘spokesman’, and was frequently used specifically for ‘one who interprets the will of the gods to humans’. The Greek translators of the Bible adopted it into Christian usage. Prophecy [13] comes ultimately from the Greek derivative prophētíā.
=> fable, fame, fate
prophylactic: prophylactic: [16] Prophylactic comes from Greek prophulaktikós, a derivative of the verb prophulássein. This meant literally ‘keep guard in front of a place’, and hence ‘take precautions against’. It was formed from the prefix pro- ‘before’ and phulássein ‘guard’.
propinquity: propinquity: see proximity
proponent: proponent: see purpose
propose: propose: see purpose
propound: propound: see purpose
propriety: propriety: see proper