preserve meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

preserve

noun

UK /pɹəˈzɜːv/ · US /pɹəˈzɝv/

Etymology From Middle English preserven, from Old French preserver, from Medieval Latin prēservāre (“keep, preserve”), from Late Latin praeservāre (“guard beforehand”), from prae (“before”, adverb) + servāre (“maintain, keep”). Displaced native Old English nerian.

A sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.

A reservation, a nature preserve.

Suppose Shakespeare had been knocked on the head some dark night in Sir Thomas Lucy's preserves, the world would have wagged on better or worse, the pitcher gone to the well, the scythe to the corn, and the student to his book; and no one been any the wiser of the loss.1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

An exclusive area of activity.

Kids regard their tree houses as their own preserve.
No one can argue with that—neither the Army Commander nor Zhilinsky nor even the Grand Duke. That is the Emperor’s preserve. The Emperor says France must be saved. We can only do his bidding.1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 86:

1 more example

The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

Derived terms: game preserve, natural preserve, shooting preserve
Related terms: preserver

preserve

verb

To protect; to keep from harm or injury.

Let's pray that we'd be preserved from danger.
Every people has the right to preserve its identity and culture.

1 more example

O, the Lord preserve thy good Grace! By my troth, welcome to London. […]c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

To save from decay by the use of some preservative substance, such as sugar or salt; to season and prepare (fruits, meat, etc.) for storage.

to preserve peaches or grapes

To maintain throughout; to keep intact.

to preserve appearances; to preserve silence
I preserved a composed manner throughout the interrogation.

3 more examples

Better men than you, men who could believe and obey, twisted the entrails of iron and preserved the legend of fire.1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, →OCLC, page 266:
O, that this good blossom could be kept from cankers! Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
Among the most modern of all the Pacific stock in Great Britain is the stud of "Merchant Navy" and "West Country" Pacifics on the Southern Region, and the rebuilding which is now being carried out, preserving all the best features of the Bulleid designs—such as the free-steaming boiler—and jettisoning the features that have given trouble, in particular the chain-driven valve-motion, should give the Southern a supply of highly-competent machines able to last out the remaining life of steam on the S.R.1957 July 23, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 496:

Derived terms: biopreserved, cryopreserve, God preserve us, lyopreserve, mispreserve, nonpreserved, preservability, preservable, preservation, preserving glass, preservingly, preserving pan, unpreserved

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