noun — 3 senses
UK /ˈpɹɒθəsɪs/ · US /ˈpɹɔθəsɪs/
Etymology From Late Latin prothesis, prosthesis, alteration (dropping the ‘s’) from Ancient Greek πρόσθεσις (prósthesis, “addition, augmentation”), (English prosthesis) from προστίθημι (prostíthēmi, “to add”), from πρός (prós, “towards”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to place”), from Proto-Indo-European *próti, *préti + *dʰédʰeh₁- (“to be putting, to be placing”). However, often confused for a descendant of the Ancient Greek word πρόθεσις (próthesis, “a preposing, preposition”) (without the σ (s)), which is instead the source of a different term – see alternative etymology, below.
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonology, Sciences Rhetoric The prepending of phonemes at the beginning of a word without changing its morphological structure, as in Spanish esfera from Greek (via Latin) sphaera (“sphere”) (without prothesis the word would have become *sfera).
Etymology From Ancient Greek πρόθεσις (próthesis, “a preposing”), from προτίθημι (protíthēmi, “to prepose”), from πρό (pró, “before”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to place”), from Proto-Indo-European *pro + *dʰédʰeh₁ti (“to be putting, to be placing”).
Christianity The preparation and preliminary oblation of the Eucharistic bread and wine in the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches.
Broadly Credence table.
Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.