Where does “prefect” come from?
prefect (Middle English) comes from Old French prefect, from Latin praefectus, from Latin praeficio, from Latin faciō, from Latin -torium, from Latin -tōrius, from Latin -tor, from Proto-Italic -tōr.
Ancestry of “prefect”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | prefect | — |
| 2 | Latin | praefectus | officer, prefect, superintendent, official,... |
| 3 | Latin | praeficio | I place in command |
| 4 | Latin | faciō | to do |
| 5 | Latin | -torium | nominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative... |
| 6 | Latin | -tōrius | ory |
| 7 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | Forms agent nouns to verb stems |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |