prothesis

prothesis · noun¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*próti
2. Ancient Greek · derived fromπρόσθεσις“addition, augmentation”
3. Late Latin · borrowed fromprothesis
4. English todayprothesis

From Late Latin prothesis, prosthesis, alteration (dropping the ‘s’) from Ancient Greek πρόσθεσις (prósthesis, “addition, augmentation”), (English prosthesis) from προστίθημι (prostíthēmi, “to add”), from πρός (prós, “towards”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to place”), from Proto-Indo-European *próti, *préti + *dʰédʰeh₁- (“to be putting, to be placing”). 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.

prothesis · noun²

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pro-
2. Ancient Greek · borrowed fromπρόθεσις“a preposing”
3. English todayprothesis

From Ancient Greek πρόθεσις (próthesis, “a preposing”), from προτίθημι (protíthēmi, “to prepose”), from πρό (pró, “before”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to place”), from Proto-Indo-European *pro- + *dʰédʰeh₁ti (“to be putting, to be placing”).

Words from the same roots