quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- profitability (n.)



[profitability 词源字典] - mid-14c., from profitable + -ity.[profitability etymology, profitability origin, 英语词源]
- profitable (adj.)




- c. 1300, "yielding benefit, useful," from profit (v.) + -able or from Old French profitable, porfitable. Specific sense of "money-making" is attested from 1758. Related: Profitably.
- profiteer (v.)




- 1797, but dormant in English until it was revived in World War I, from profit + -eer. From 1912 as a noun. Related: Profiteering (1814).
Or is it simply hysteria which produces what is to-day termed "the profiteer?" It is probable that the modern profiteer is the same person whom we formerly called "the grafter, the extortioner, the robber, the gouger." ["Legal Aid Review," April 1920]
- profitless (adj.)




- 1590s, from profit (n.) + -less.
- profligacy (n.)




- 1670s, from profligate + -cy.
- profligate (adj.)




- 1520s, "overthrown, routed" (now obsolete in this sense), from Latin profligatus "destroyed, ruined, corrupt, abandoned, dissolute," past participle of profligare "to cast down, defeat, ruin," from pro- "down, forth" (see pro-) + fligere "to strike" (see afflict). Main modern meaning "recklessly extravagant" is 1779, via notion of "ruined by vice" (1640s, implied in a use of profligation). Related: Profligately. As a noun from 1709.
- profound (adj.)




- c. 1300, "characterized by intellectual depth," from Old French profund (12c., Modern French profond), from Latin profundus "deep, bottomless, vast," also "obscure; profound; immoderate," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + fundus "bottom" (see fund (n.)). The literal and figurative senses both were in Latin, but English, having already deep, employed this word primarily in its figurative sense. Related: Profoundly.
- profundity (n.)




- early 15c., "bottom of the sea," from Old French profundite (Modern French profondité) and directly from Late Latin profunditatem (nominative profunditas) "depth, intensity, immensity," from profundus "deep, vast" (see profound). Meaning "depth of intellect" in English is from c. 1500.
- profuse (adj.)




- early 15c., "lavish, extravagant," from Latin profusus "spread out, lavish, extravagant," literally "poured forth," noun use of past participle of profundere "pour forth," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + fundere "to pour" (see found (v.2)). Meaning "bountiful" is from c. 1600. Related: Profusely; profuseness.
- profusion (n.)




- 1540s, from Middle French profusion (16c.) and directly from Late Latin profusionem (nominative profusio) "a pouring out," noun of action from past participle stem of profundere (see profuse).
- profusive (adj.)




- 1630s, from profuse + -ive. Related: Profusively; profusiveness.
- prog




- 1958, colloquial shortening of progressive (q.v.). Earlier it was British student slang for proctor (1890) and earlier still a cant word for "food, provisions" (1650s), perhaps from verb prog "to poke about" (1610s), of unknown origin, perhaps related to prod (v.). Related: Progged; progging.
- progenitor (n.)




- late 14c., from Anglo-French progenitour (mid-14c.), Old French progeniteur (14c.) and directly from Latin progenitor "ancestor, the founder of a family," agent noun from progenitus, past participle of progignere (see progeny). Related: Progenitive; progenital; progenitrix (c. 1600).
- progeny (n.)




- early 14c., from Old French progenie (13c.) and directly from Latin progenies "descendants, offspring, lineage, race, family," from stem of progignere "beget," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + gignere "to produce, beget" (see genus).
- progeria (n.)




- 1902, Modern Latin, from Greek progeros "prematurely old;" from pro- (see pro-) + geras "old man" (see geriatric) + abstract noun ending -ia.
- progesterone (n.)




- female steroid sex hormone which prepares the uterus for child-bearing, 1935, from German Progesteron, from progestin (from which substance it was obtained), which had been coined 1930 from pro- (see pro-) + Latin gestare, literally "to carry about" (see gestation), on notion of "substance which favors gestation." Also see -one.
- prognathous (adj.)




- 1836, from pro- + gnatho- "jaw" + -ous. Related: Prognathic.
- prognosis (n.)




- 1650s, "forecast of the probable course of a disease," from Late Latin prognosis, from Greek prognosis "foreknowledge," also, in medicine, "predicted course of a disease," from stem of progignoskein "come to know beforehand," from pro- "before" (see pro-) + gignoskein "come to know" (see gnostic). General (non-medical) use in English from 1706. A back-formed verb prognose is attested from 1837. Related: Prognosed; prognosing.
- prognostic (adj.)




- c. 1600, from Medieval Latin prognosticus, from Greek prognostikos "foreknowing," from progignoskein (see prognosis). Related: Prognostical (1580s).
- prognosticate (v.)




- early 15c., a back-formation from prognostication and also from Medieval Latin prognosticatus, past participle of prognosticare (see prognostication). Related: Prognosticated; prognosticating.