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peril [peril 词源字典]: peril: [13] Etymologically, peril means a ‘trying out of something’, an ‘experiment’. The word comes via Old French peril from Latin perīculum ‘experiment, danger’, a noun formed from the base *per- ‘attempt’ (which also lies behind English empiric, experience, expert, pirate, and repertory). Its derivative perīculōsus originally reached English via Old French as perilous [13], but subsequently became contracted to parlous [14].
=> empiric, experience, expert, parlous, pirate, repertory[peril etymology, peril origin, 英语词源]
period: period: [14] Period means etymologically ‘going round’. It comes via Old French periode and Latin periodus from Greek períodos, a compound noun formed from the prefix perí- ‘round’ and hódos ‘way’ (source also of English episode, exodus [17], and method). The main sense of the word in modern English, ‘interval of time’ (which first emerged in post-classical Latin), comes from the notion of a ‘repeated cycle of events’ (now more obvious in the derivative periodical [17]).
=> episode, exodus, method
peripatetic: peripatetic: [16] Peripatetic means literally ‘walking round’. It comes via Old French peripatetique and Latin peripatēticus from Greek peripatētikós. This was a derivative of peripatein, a compound verb formed from the prefix perí- ‘round’ and patein ‘walk’. But the Greeks used it not simply for ‘walk around’, but specifically for ‘teach while walking around’ – an allusion to the teaching methods of Aristotle, who discussed and argued with his pupils and followers while walking about in the Lyceum, a garden near the temple of Apollo in Athens.

Hence adherents of Aristotle’s school of philosophy are known as Peripatetics. The more general use of the adjective for ‘itinerant’ represents a relatively modern (17th-century) return to its etymological meaning.
periphrasis: periphrasis: see phrase
periwig: periwig: see wig
perjury: perjury: see just
permanent: permanent: see remain
permit: permit: [15] Permit is one of a large family of English words (including also admit, commit, etc) which go back to Latin mittere ‘let go, send’. Combination with the prefix per- ‘through’ produced permittere ‘let go, give up’, hence ‘allow’. Amongst derivatives to have reached English are permissible [15], permission [15], and permissive [17].
=> admit, commit, mission, permission, submit, transmit
perpendicular: perpendicular: see pendulum
perpetrate: perpetrate: see father
perpetual: perpetual: see repeat
perplex: perplex: see ply
persecute: persecute: see sequence
persist: persist: see statue
person: person: [13] Latin persōna originally denoted a ‘mask, particularly one worn by an actor’ (it may have been borrowed from Etruscan phersu ‘mask’). It gradually evolved through ‘character played by an actor’ (a meaning preserved in English persona [20], a term introduced by Jungian psychology) to ‘individual human being’. It entered English via Old French persone, and by the normal processes of phonetic development has become parson.

But this in the Middle English period was hived off (for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained) to ‘priest’, and the original Latinate spelling person was restored for ‘human being’. Other derivatives to have reached English include impersonate [17], personage [15], personal [14], personality [14], and, via French, personnel [19].
=> impersonate, parson, personnel
perspire: perspire: see spirit
persuade: persuade: [16] The -suade element of persuade goes back to Latin suādēre ‘advise, urge’, a descendant of the same Indo-European base (*swād-) as produced English assuage [14], suave [16], and sweet. Addition of the intensive prefix per- produced persuādēre, source of English persuade; while negation of suādēre with dis- has given English dissuade [15].
=> assuage, suave, sweet
peruke: peruke: see wig
peruse: peruse: see use
pervert: pervert: see verse