preserve
English
editAlternative forms
edit- præserve (archaic)
Etymology
editFrom Middle English preserven, from Old French preserver, from Medieval Latin prēservāre (“keep, preserve”),[1] from Late Latin praeservāre (“guard beforehand”), from prae (“before”, adverb) servāre (“maintain, keep”).
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /pɹəˈzɜːv/
- (General American) IPA(key): /pɹəˈzɝv/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)v
Noun
editpreserve (countable and uncountable, plural preserves)
- A sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.
- A reservation, a nature preserve.
- 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:
- 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.
- An activity with restricted access.
- 1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 86:
- 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.
- 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
- 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.
Usage notes
editMore often used in the plural, as strawberry preserves, but the form without the -s can also be used as the plural form, or to refer to a single type.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editsweet spread
|
nature preserve
|
activity with restricted access
See also
editVerb
editpreserve (third-person singular simple present preserves, present participle preserving, simple past and past participle preserved)
- To protect; to keep from harm or injury.
- Every people have the right to preserve its identity and culture.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- When Pistol lies, do this, and fig me like / The bragging Spaniard.
- 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
- 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:
- Better men than you, men who could believe and obey, twisted the entrails of iron and preserved the legend of fire.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editto protect
|
to prepare food for storage
|
to keep; to maintain the condition of
|
References
edit- ^ “prēserven, v..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2018, retrieved 26 February 2020.
Anagrams
editPortuguese
editVerb
editpreserve
- inflection of preservar:
Spanish
editVerb
editpreserve
- inflection of preservar:
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ser- (guard)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)v
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)v/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- Portuguese non-lemma forms
- Portuguese verb forms
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms