Etymograph

English

precarious

Precarious comes from Latin precārius ‘begged for, obtained by entreaty’, from prex ‘prayer’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- ‘to request, ask’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*preḱ-1‘to request, ask’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*preks1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprex2‘prayer’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprecārius2‘begged for, obtained by entreaty’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1897precarious2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin prex
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English precarious
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “One morning I had been driven to the precarious…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*preḱ-Wiktionary, Latin prex‘to request, ask’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*preksWiktionary, Latin prexreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprexWiktionary, English precarious‘prayer’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprecāriusWiktionary, English precarious‘begged for, obtained by entreaty’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1897precariousWiktionary, English precarious. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “One morning I had been driven to the precarious…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- ‘to request, ask’

arrogant, arrogance, derogatory, prerogative, postulate, derogation, 26 more

through Latin prex ‘prayer’

prayer, pray, deprecation, 10 more

Today it means

adj Dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “precarious”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin prex. 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 *preḱ- / precarious

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