Etymograph

English

per

Per comes from Latin per ‘through, during’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *per-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*per-1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*per1‘through’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEper1‘through’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2023per1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English per
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2023, Thomas Schlacher: “The Nuggets star is averaging 24.9 PPG, 11.9 RPG…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*per-Wiktionary, English perreconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*perWiktionary, English per‘through’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEperWiktionary, English per‘through’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2023perWiktionary, English per. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2023, Thomas Schlacher: “The Nuggets star is averaging 24.9 PPG, 11.9 RPG…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with per, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *per-

  • first ← fyrest ← *furist ← *furistaz ← *furai
  • before ← before//bifore ← beforan ← foran ← *furai
  • support ← supporten ← supporter ← supportō ← portō
  • far ← ferre ← *ferrai ← *per-nóy
  • report ← reporten ← reporter ← reportāre ← porto
  • price ← pris ← pretium ← *pretjom ← *pr-é-ti ~ *pr-ó-ti
  • private ← privat ← prīvātus ← prīvō ← prīvus
  • press ← presse ← pressa ← presser ← pressāre
  • practice
  • further ← forþor ← *furþer
  • fear ← feer ← fǣr ← *fērō
  • opportunity ← opportunité ← opportūnitās ← opportūnus ← portus

184 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

prep For each.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “per”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *per- / per