prosecute: [15] If you prosecute someone, etymologically you ‘pursue’ them. The word comes from prōsecūt-, the past participial stem of prōsequī ‘pursue’, a compound verb formed from the prefix prō- ‘forward’ and sequī ‘follow’ (source of English sequal, sequence, etc). The word’s legal application emerged in the late 16th century. => pursue, sequal, sequence, suit