prosthesis

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin prosthesis (“addition of a letter or syllable to a word”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in post-classical Latin from the 4th century,^[2] from Ancient Greek πρόσθεσις (prósthesis, “a putting to, addition”),^[2][3][7] which in Hellenistic Greek also meant the addition of a letter or syllable.^[2] The Greek noun is formed from πρός (prós, “to, toward”) and θέσις (thésis, “a placing”),^[2][8] after προστίθημι (prostíthēmi, “to put to, add”),^[2][7][9] the verb being formed with the same prefix from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”),^[3][7][9] from a reduplicated form of Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[3][9] The OED compares French prosthèse, used in medicine from 1638 and in grammar from 1765 and now usually prothèse, and Portuguese próstese, a grammatical term from 1540.^[2] It suggests that the idea of an addition at the beginning of a word came from association of the Greek prefix with προ- (pro-, “before”), as in prothesis.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In grammar, the addition of a letter or syllable to the beginning of a word: 1550, in R. Sherry's Treatise of Schemes and Tropes.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense, the replacement of a missing or defective part of the body with an artificial one, appears in 1706, in Kersey's revision of Phillips's dictionary;^[4][2][3] Etymonline explains it as "that which is added to" the body.^[3] By 1900, in Dorland's American Illustrated Medical Dictionary, the word was used of the artificial part itself,^[2][3] and this is now its main sense, while the grammatical one is rare.^[2][5][10] The adjective prosthetic, recorded from 1837, is from the Greek adjective Ancient Greek προσθετικός (prosthetikós, “of the nature of an addition”).^[4]

Timeline

• 1550 – in grammar, the addition of a letter or syllable to the beginning of a word.^[2][5][3]
• 1706 – the replacement of missing or defective parts of the body by artificial ones.^[2][3][4]
• 1900 – an artificial replacement for a part of the body.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An artificial device that replaces a missing or defective part of the body, such as a limb, an eye or a tooth: Within months she was running on a carbon-fibre prosthesis.^[5][10][2]
2. (surgery) The replacement of missing parts of the body with artificial ones, or the branch of medicine concerned with this; prosthetics.^[10][2]
3. (linguistics) The addition of a sound or syllable to a word, especially at its beginning; prothesis.^[5][10][2]
4. (prosody) The addition of one or more syllables at the beginning of a verse, especially in Greek and Latin poetry.^[5]

Word family

• prosthetically

Related words

• prosthetic
• prosthetics
• prosthodontics
• prothesis
• thesis
• hypothesis
• synthesis
• epithet

Usage notes

The plural is prostheses.^[5][10][3] In the grammatical sense the word is stressed on the first syllable, in the medical sense usually on the second.^[11][5] Weekley noted that the grammatical sense would better be called prothesis.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray