The story
- Old French · derived fromprelat
- English todayprelate
From Old French prelat (French prélat), from Medieval Latin praelātus, perfect passive participle of praeferō (“to carry before, prefer, exceed”), see -ate (noun-forming suffix). Doublet of prefer. See also infer, relate and refer, delate and defer, as well as collate and confer among others.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.