Language Of Confusion: Per-, Part VI

There’s still more to look at from the Proto Indo European per-, forward. Quite a lot more, actually.
 
First, we’re going to look at prompt, which showed up in the mid fourteenth century as a verb, then the early fifteenth century as a noun and adjective. It comes from the classical Latin promptus, prompt or ready, which is from the verb promere, to bring forth. The pro literally means forward (from per-, of course), and the rest is emere, to take. Prompt is to take forward. I’m not sure if that makes sense or if my brain broke.
 
There’s also protest, which I believe I looked at with test words a very long time ago. It showed up in the fifteenth century meaning a pledge or declaration, then meaning a statement of disapproval in the eighteenth century, then a formal declaration of being against something in the nineteenth, and finally what we use it for in 1942—that recently! It’s from the Old French protest (not at all surprised protest is French), with the pro meaning forth or before, and the rest meaning testify. A protest is testifying before. I guess.
 
Next, how about prophet, which is very old, having shown up in the late twelfth century. It’s from the Old French prophete/profete and classical Latin propheta, and they of course took it from the Greek prophetes. Pro again means before, while the rest is from the Greek phanai, to speak. Prophets speak forward.
 
Prodigal showed up in the sixteenth century meaning lavish or wasteful, from the French prodigal and Late Latin prodigalis. That’s then from the classical Latin prodigus, lavish, with the pro- meaning forth, and the rest from the verb agere, to set in motion or act. Not sure how it got to lavish and wasteful from there, but apparently it did.
 
Finally today: approximate. It showed up as a verb in the fifteenth century and an adjective two centuries later, from the Late Latin approximatus, and its verb form approximare, to come near to. The a- comes from ad-, to, and the rest is the classical Latin verb proximare, to approach. That’s then from prope, near, from the PIE propro, on and on, from per-. And that’s how on and on leads to approximate.
 
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
Orbis Latinus