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[15] The -vide of provide goes back to Latin vidēre ‘see’ (source of English vision), which is a long way from the English verb’s main present-day meaning, ‘supply’. Its Latin ancestor prōvidēre, formed with the prefix prō- ‘before’, meant ‘foresee’ – a sense which survived into English: ‘evident and sufficient signs, whereby may be provided and foreseen the aborcement [abortion] before it comes’, Thomas Raynalde, Birth of Mankind 1545. But already in Latin it had moved on to ‘exercise foresight by making preparations’, and this formed the basis of the later ‘supply’. Other English descendants of prōvidēre include improvise, provident [15] (a close relative of prudent), provision [14], proviso [15], and purvey [13].
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