praetor

The story

1. Latin · derived frompraetor“leader”, “commander”, “magistrate”
2. Middle French · derived frompreteur
3. Anglo-Norman · derived frompretour
4. Middle English · inherited frompretour
5. English todaypraetor

From Middle English pretour, pretor, from the Anglo-Norman pretour, pretore, the Middle French preteur (from the Old French pretor; compare the Modern French préteur), and their etymon, the Classical Latin praetor (“leader”, “commander”, “magistrate”); the Latin praetor being contracted from *praeitor (“one who goes before”), from praeeō (“to go before”), from prae (“before”) + eō (“to go”); compare the Italian pretore, the Portuguese pretor, and the Spanish pretor.

Words from the same roots