prosperous

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English prosperous, also prosperose, prosperus and prospereux,^[2] borrowed from Old French prospereus,^[3][4][5][2] from prosperer (“to prosper”),^[3][6] with the suffix -ous.^[6][4] Etymonline and the MED also name the Anglo-Latin form Medieval Latin prosperosus and the Anglo-French prosperous as possible sources.^[3][2] The revised OED instead treats it as formed in English from Latin prosper (“favourable, fortunate”) and -ous, comparing prosperosus (1432 in a British source), Middle French prospereux and Italian prosperoso.^[7] The Latin adjective, also prosperus,^[8][9] is probably formed from an Old Latin phrase, prō (“for, according to”) and spēs (“hope”), so that it meant "according to one's hope".^[9][8] Klein relates spēs to Old English spēd (“success, prosperity”), the source of speed, and to spatium (“space”).^[9] The Anglo-Norman verb prosperer, to foster or to be successful, is recorded from about 1360–79.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bringing success; favourable, auspicious: about 1425, in the “Book of Foundation of St Bartholomew's”.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the active one, "bringing prosperity", as in a prosperous wind or voyage; the OED now labels it archaic.^[7][6] By about 1450 the word was used of people and their affairs that kept on succeeding, "flourishing, thriving",^[7][3] and the MED records it of a reign and of good health.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "successful; fortunate".^[11] The economic sense, "well-off, wealthy", is now the usual one.^[7][12]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – favourable, bringing success.^[7]
• c. 1450 – flourishing, thriving, continually successful.^[7]
• 1472–3 – prospereux, of a king's reign, in the Rolls of Parliament.^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as "successful; fortunate".^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Successful and thriving, especially in money matters; wealthy or affluent: a prosperous mill town.^[12][6][7]
2. Marked by good fortune; flourishing.^[6][12]
3. (archaic) Bringing success; favourable or auspicious: a prosperous wind.^[7][6][12]

Word family

• prosperously
• prosperousness
• overprosperous
• superprosperous
• unprosperous
• prosperity

Related words

• prosper
• despair
• desperate
• speed

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins