prairie (English)

Where does "prairie" come from?

The English noun 'prairie' was borrowed from French 'prairie'[1]. The French term was inherited from Old French 'praerie', which combined 'pré' with the suffix '-erie'[2][4]. This Old French form ultimately derives from Latin 'prātum', meaning 'meadow', combined with the suffix '-aria'[2]. The Latin noun 'prātum' goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*preh₂-', meaning 'to bend'[3], which itself stems from '*per-', meaning 'before'[5].

Open questions

• The Proto-Indo-European root '*preh₂-' is a reconstruction meaning to bend. [3]
• The root '*preh₂-' is derived from '*per-', meaning before. [5]

Full etymology tree

• prairie (English), 'An extensive area of relatively flat grassland with few, if any, trees, especially in North America.'
  • borrowed prairie (French), 'meadow, grassland, pasture, prairie'
    • inherited praerie (Old French), 'meadow'
      • compound pré (Old French)
      • suffix -erie (French), 'denotes a shop selling a certain product'
      • derived pratum (Latin), 'meadows'
        • inherited *preh₂- (Proto-Indo-European), 'before, in front'
          • derived *per- (Proto-Indo-European), 'before, in front'
      • suffix -aria (Latin), 'Used to form feminine counterparts of masculine agent nouns in -ārius.'

Ancestors

• prairie (French)

Descendants and derived words

• prairie dog (English)
• Attwater's prairie chicken (English)
• Canadian Prairies (English)
• Eden Prairie (English)
• greater prairie chicken (English)
• Gunnison's prairie dog (English)
• lesser prairie chicken (English)
• Long Prairie (English)
• Pleasant Prairie (English)
• Portage la Prairie (English)
• prairie alligator (English)
• prairie apple (English)

Sources

1. prairie (English) - Wiktionary
2. prairie (French) - Wiktionary
3. pratum (Latin) - Wiktionary
4. praerie (Old French) - Wiktionary
5. preh₂- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

More words starting with P

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris