PRECARIOUS

PRONUNCIATION: (pri-KAYR-ee-uhs)

MEANING: adjective: Risky; uncertain; insecure; unstable; unsafe.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin precarius (obtained by entreaty, hence uncertain), from prex (prayer). So something precarious is hanging by a prayer, which is, not by much. Ultimately from the Indo-European root prek- (to ask), which also gave us pray, precarious, deprecate, postulate, precatory, and expostulate. Earliest documented use: 1638.
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PREVARIOUS - 1. lying;
2. comes before many other things

PRECARIBOUS - before there were reindeer

PREMARIOUS - for relief of post-menopausal symptoms; made of conjugated equine estrogens, extracted from the urine of PREgnant MARes (see Package Insert)