Where does “prentice” come from?
Prentice comes from Old French prentis, meaning apprentice, derived from Latin praehendere, meaning to seize or grasp.
Ancestry of “prentice”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | apprentice | — |
| 2 | Old French | aprentis | apprentice |
| 3 | Old French | aprendre | to learn; to teach; to educate |
| 4 | Latin | apprendere | third-person plural perfect active indicative of... |
| 5 | Latin | apprehendere | third-person plural perfect active indicative of... |
| 6 | Latin | prehendō | — |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | *praiɣendō | — |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | prai- | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | preh₂- | before, in front |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | per- | before, in front; first; to go through |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | pr̥tós | passed , crossed |