Etymology Explorer › Middle English

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

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchprefect—
2Latinpraefectusofficer, prefect, superintendent, official,...
3LatinpraeficioI place in command
4Latinfaciō—
5Latin-toriumnominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative...
6Latin-tōrius—
7Latin-tor-er
8Proto-Italic-tōr—
9Proto-Indo-European-tōrDerives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone...
10Proto-Indo-European-tor-s—

Words derived from “prefect”

  • prefect
  • subprefect
  • prefectship
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tor-s →