English
prothesis
Prothesis comes from Ancient Greek πρόσθεσις ‘addition, augmentation’, and goes back to προστίθημι ‘to add’.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπροστίθημιprostíthēmi‘to add’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEπρόσθεσιςprósthesis‘addition, augmentation’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEprothesis
- Englishtodayprothesis
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπροστίθημιprostíthēmi‘to add’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEπρόσθεσιςprósthesis‘addition, augmentation’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEprothesis
- Englishtodayprothesis
A compound of πρός ‘towards’ + τίθημι ‘to place’
Proto-Indo-European *pró ‘forwards, before’
Proto-Indo-European *próti ‘towards’
Ancient Greek πρός ‘towards’
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to put, place’
Proto-Indo-European *dʰé-dʰeh₁-ti
Proto-Hellenic *t(e/i)tʰēmi
Ancient Greek τίθημι ‘to place’
The story
However, often confused for a descendant of the Ancient Greek word πρόθεσις (próthesis, “a preposing, preposition”) (without the σ (s)), which is instead the source of a different term – see alternative etymology, below.
Linked words
through Ancient Greek πρόσθεσις ‘addition, augmentation’
Another origin of prothesis
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπροτίθημιprotíthēmi‘to prepose’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEπρόθεσιςpróthesis‘a preposing’
- Englishtodayprothesis
Today it means
noun The prepending of phonemes at the beginning of a word without changing its morphological structure, as in Spanish esfera from Greek (via Latin) sphaera (“sphere”) (without prothesis the word would have become *sfera).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek προστίθημι / prothesis