English
prairie
Prairie comes from French prairie ‘meadow, grassland, pasture, prairie’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- ‘to bend’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*preh₂-1‘to bend’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprātum2‘meadow’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*prataria2reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400praerie2‘meadow’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentprairie2‘meadow, grassland, pasture, prairie’
- Englishearliest quotation 1879prairie2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin pratum
- 2 Wiktionary, English prairie
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1879, Richard Jefferies, London: Smith: “It was not far from the house; but the…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*preh₂-Wiktionary, Latin pratum‘to bend’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprātumWiktionary, English prairie‘meadow’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*pratariaWiktionary, English prairiereconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400praerieWiktionary, English prairie‘meadow’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentprairieWiktionary, English prairie‘meadow, grassland, pasture, prairie’
- Englishearliest quotation 1879prairieWiktionary, English prairie. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1879, Richard Jefferies, London: Smith: “It was not far from the house; but the…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- ‘to bend’
for, first, premier, prestigious, forbid, preface, primer, prefix, primate, precede, preeminent, parley, primacy, parasol, impregnate, prescient, 17 more
through Latin prātum ‘meadow’
Today it means
noun An extensive area of relatively flat grassland with few, if any, trees, especially in North America.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “prairie”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin pratum. 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 *preh₂- / prairie