prepare

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /prɪˈpeə/, US /prɪˈper/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English preparen,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French préparer (14th century),^[4][2][3] and directly from Latin praeparāre (“to make ready beforehand”),^[4][2][5] from prae “before” and parāre “to make ready”,^[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *pere- (“to produce, procure”).^[4] Etymonline takes it in part as a back-formation from preparation (about 1390).^[4][2] It replaced the earlier preparaten, preperaten (1392, about 1395), from the Latin past participle praeparātus.^[2][4] It is related to pare and apparatus.^[4][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make ready beforehand, to set in order for an end: 1466 in the OED and Barnhart,^[7][2] the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

To make food ready to eat is from the late 15th century, in Caxton.^[4] To get oneself ready is from about 1500 (1509 in the OED),^[4][7] and to bring into a state of mental readiness from the 1520s (1526).^[4][7] Be prepared, to be ready, is from 1579,^[7] and as the Boy Scouts' motto from 1911, based, as Baden-Powell said, on his own initials.^[4] To get a speech or lesson ready by study is from 1683,^[7] and to train a person for an examination from 1891.^[7] The noun prepare, preparation, from 1535, is obsolete or dialectal.^[7] Preparatory is from 1413.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – preparation.^[2]
• 1466 – to make ready.^[7][2]
• late 15th century – to prepare food.^[4]
• 1509 – to get ready.^[7]
• 1526 – to prepare mentally.^[7]
• 1683 – to prepare a speech by study.^[7]
• 1911 – Be Prepared.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make ready beforehand for a purpose or event.
2. To make or put together, as food or a medicine.
3. To make oneself or someone ready, mentally or by training.
4. (music) To lead up to and soften a dissonance.
5. be prepared to: to be willing to.

Word family

• preparedly
• preparer
• reprepare

Related words

• preparation
• preparatory
• pare
• apparatus
• repair

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press