presencepresence

Presence comes from Old French presence, from Latin praesentia ‘a being present’, from praesēns ‘present’, from prae- + sum ‘to be’.

1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsum¹‘to be’
2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraesum¹‘to be before; to preside’
3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraesēns²as praesentem‘present, at hand’
4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpraesentia²‘a being present’
5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400presence²
6. Englishearliest quotation 1910presence²

1. ¹ Wiktionary, Latin praesens
2. ² Wiktionary, English presence
3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1910, Emerson Hough, Indianapolis: “Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging…”.