Language Of Confusion: Per-, Part II

We’re back once again looking at the Proto Indo European per-, which means forward, and is a part of a lot of words. This week: all the prefixes it’s part of.
 
First is pro-, which means forward, toward the front, before, taking care of, and in place or behalf of, all of which are kind of related to forward—and it can be a word on its own, either short for professional or the opposite of con. All of them are from the classical Latin pro, which means for as well as pretty much any of the definitions I gave you for the pro- prefix up there. Obviously that’s from the PIE per-, but also related is the prefix per- (shouldn’t be surprising). Per- usually means through or thoroughly and tends to be part of words that are of French and Latin origin. It’s from per, which is taken from Latin, and again, from the PIE per-.
 
We also have pre-, which also means before. It’s from the Old French pre-, Medieval Latin pre-, and classical Latin prae (means before, and is a seldom used prefix in English). That’s from the Proto Indo European peri-, which is just another form of per-. And speaking of peri-, that’s from here, too. It’s actually a prefix used in words of Greek origin and means around or enclosing, literally meaning about. And that’s from per-, because forward—or in front of—is about near something.
 
And we can’t forget para-, another Greek prefix. Para means despite in Greek, or in spite of, although, or than. And yes, it’s from per-. Something para- is near or metaphorically forward. The final prefix we’re going to look at is proto-, and yet again, it’s mostly in front of words of Greek origin, and from the Greek proto, which means first. Something that’s first, is forward. Thankfully that one’s simple.

 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Dictionary of Medieval Latin