Word origins

• proglottidA segment of a tapeworm; they contain both male and female reproductive organs
• progymnasmataA series of preliminary rhetorical exercises originated in Ancient Greece, aiming to prepare students for writing declamations after they had completed their education with the grammarians.
• prohairesisThe Stoic principle that people have a choice in how they judge, and are affected by, externalities.
• prohaireticRelating to prohairesis.
• prokeimenonIn the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church and Byzantine Rite, a psalm or canticle refrain sung responsorially at certain points of the Divine Liturgy or the Divine Office, usually to introduce a scripture reading.
• promachosA deity who fights in front of, or champions, some person or state.
• pronaosThe inner area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple
• pronoiaDivine providence, foreknowledge, foresight.
• prooemionA preface, an introduction.
• proostracumThe anterior prolongation of the guard of the phragmocone of belemnites and allied fossil cephalopods, whether horny or calcareous.
• propaedeuticPreparatory or introductory.
• proparoxytoneHaving the stress or accent on the antepenultimate syllable.
• propedeuseA diploma obtained after completion of a first year's (preparatory) study at some European universities.
• properispomenonIn Greek grammar, having a circumflex accent on the penultimate syllable.
• prophasesThe actual reasons for going to war. These may differ from proschemata, the pretexts offered to the public.
• prophoricenunciative
• prophyllThe frequently specialised or reduced leaf produced at the first node of a new shoot.
• propomaIn Ancient Greece, a drink served as an appetizer.
• PropontisSea of Marmara
• propterygiumThe anterior of three principal cartilages in the fins of some fishes.
• pros-To, toward, before, forward, in front.
• proschemaA screen or pretext for doing something, especially for waging war.
• proscynemaA formulaic inscription expressing adoration of or homage to a particular deity.
• ProsdocimusA male given name from Greek.
• prosencephalonThe forebrain.
• proseucheA place of prayer; among the Jews, one that was not a synagogue, or the temple, usually roofless.
• prosiopeticOf the nature of prosiopesis; compare aposiopetic.
• proskynesisThe act of bowing down before a lord or ruler, especially in ancient Persia.
• proslambanomenosThe lowest note in Ancient Greek music, appended to the bottom of the scale.
• proslepsisThe pretence of passing over a subject while at the same time describing it fully.
• proso-Forward, in the front
• prosodionA processional hymn.
• prosogyrateThat curves toward the anterior
• prosomaThe front segment of a body which is divided into two or more segments, especially the cephalothorax of an arachnid or crustacean.
• prosopalgiaFacial neuralgia.
• prosopo-Having to do with the face; facial.
• prosopographiaThe vivid description of someone's face or character.
• prosopolepsya premature opinion or prejudice against a person, formed from external appearance
• prosoponA mask worn by an actor to indicate the character being played.
• prosoponologyThe collection and classification of masks.
• prosopopoeiaAn act of personifying a person or object when communicating to an audience; a figure of speech involving this.
• prosphoraa holy bread; a small loaf of leavened bread, used for communion in Orthodox Church. Usually consists of two layers, symbolizing the dual nature of Christ.
• prosphysisA growing together of parts; specifically, a morbid adhesion of the eyelids to each other or to the eyeball.
• prosth-Placed before, added.
• prosthaphæresisA method of computing by means of a table of natural trigonometrical functions, without multiplication.
• prosthionThe most anterior point of the upper alveolar process
• prostho-Placed before, added, at the front, at the tip, before.
• prosthogonimidAny trematode flatworm in the family Prosthogonimidae.
• pros ton kaironAs the occasion requires.
• protacticGiving a previous narrative or explanation, as of the plot or personages of a play; introductory.
• protagonA supposed crystalline molecule that forms the brain. The idea was proposed by Matthias Eugen Oscar Liebreich and Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Thudichum later disproved it, showing that the brain contains various lipids.
• protaspisA stage in the development of a trilobite where the creature has not yet developed articulated segments.
• proteicproteinic
• protero-First
• prothalamionA song or poem in honour of a bride and bridegroom about to be married.
• protherapeiaA figure of speech used to secure indulgence or conciliate an audience before saying something potentially shocking, offensive, or difficult to accept.
• prothesisThe 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).
• protheticof, relating to, or involving prothesis
• protideThe normal hydride ion using protium.
• proto-An early, primitive stage of development.
• protoduliaA level of veneration lower than hyperdulia given to Saint Joseph.
• protogenosAny of the first order of deities to come into existence, according to Greek cosmogony.
• protoiereusSynonym of protopresbyter.
• protologueAll the original material associated with a newly published name, comprising its description or diagnosis and any of a number of other elements such as illustrations, synonymy, etc.
• protomatterThe ultimate basis of physical substance, before it has been given form.
• protomeA decorative element, on ancient artefacts, based on the head of an animal or bust of a person.
• protopopeA protopresbyter.
• protostatesA man positioned in front of an epistates in an Ancient Greek phalanx.
• prototherianBelonging or pertaining to the subclass Prototheria.
• protozeugmaA zeugma where the word or words on which all of the phrases depend is placed first.
• protrepticServing to instruct; didactic.
• protyleA hypothetical base substance from which all chemical elements were believed to have been made; subatomic particles.
• proxenosA citizen of a state appointed by another state to host its ambassadors and to represent and protect its interests there.
• proxenyIn Ancient Greece, an arrangement whereby a citizen (chosen by the city) hosted foreign ambassadors at his own expense, in return for honorary titles from the state.
• prozeugmaA zeugma where the governing word occurs in the first clause of the sentence.
• prytaneThe priest or chief magistrate who presided over a prytaneum.
• prytanyThe period during which the presidency of the senate belonged to the prytanes of the section
• psammiteAny sandstone, but most often a metamorphosed rock unit with a dominantly sandstone protolith
• psammo-Pertaining to sand.
• psellismstammering; stuttering
• pseph-pebble, small stone
• psephismA proposition adopted by a majority of votes, especially by the vote of the Athenian people; a statute.
• psephiteA sediment or sedimentary rock composed of fragments that are coarser than sand and which are enclosed in a matrix that varies in kind and amount.
• psephologyThe predictive or statistical study of elections.
• pseudoblepsisfalse sight; hallucination
• pseudocoeliaThe fifth ventricle in the mammalian brain.
• pseudodoxNot true in opinion or doctrine; false.
• pseudoproctThe anal opening on the pseudembryo of an echinoderm.
• psilanthropistOne who believes that Jesus Christ was a mere man.
• psilo-slender
• psilocin4-hydroxy-dimethyltryptamine, a hallucinogenic alkaloid found in most psychedelic mushrooms.
• psiloiThe light infantry of an Ancient Greek army, usually acting as skirmishers and missile troops.
• psilon pneumaSynonym of smooth breathing.
• psilopaedicHaving down on the dorsal side only.
• psilophyteAny plant that is adapted to live in a savannah
• psilosisThe sound change by which Greek lost the consonant sound /h/ during antiquity, h-dropping.
• psithurismThe sound of rustling leaves or wind in the trees.
• psittacineOf or pertaining to parrots.
• psittacosauridAny dinosaur of the family †Psittacosauridae; a psittacosaurus
• psittacosaurusAny of several dinosaurs, of the genus Psittacosaurus, that lacked horns