English
prophage
From pro- + phage.
Proto-Indo-European *pér ‘through’
Proto-Indo-European *pró ‘forwards, before’
Proto-Italic *prō ‘in front of, before’
Latin prō ‘in favor of, on behalf of’
English pro-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- ‘to eat’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁édti ‘to eat’
Proto-Hellenic *édō ‘to eat’
Ancient Greek ἔδω ‘to eat, consume’
English phage
Today it means
noun The latent form of a bacteriophage in which the viral genome is inserted into the host chromosome.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “prophage”. 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 / prophage