Where does “prayer” come from?

Prayer derives from Anglo-Norman preier, from Latin precari meaning to ask or entreat, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European per-.

prayer (English): A practice of communicating with one's God; An...

Definitions

  1. A practice of communicating with one's God; An...

Ancestry of “prayer”, step by step

prayer traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English pray

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishprayTo direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to...
2Middle Englishpreiento pray
3Anglo-NormanpreierAlternative form of proiier
4Old Frenchproiierto pray; to pray; to beg; to implore; to beg
5LatinprecorI beseech, beg, pray, entreat; I wish well or ill...
6Latinprexprayer; request; entreaty
7Proto-Italicpreks—
8Proto-Indo-Europeanpréḱs—
9Proto-Indo-Europeanpreḱ-to ask
10Proto-Indo-Europeanpr̥ḱneh₂—

via Middle English preiere

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishpreiere—
2Old FrenchpreiereAlternative form of proiere
3Latinprecāriapetition
4Latinprecāriusrelated to entreaty or petition
5Latin-āriuser
6Proto-Italic*-āziosForms relational adjectives to nouns (and rarely numerals)

Words derived from “prayer”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European pr̥ḱneh₂ →