PREDACIOUS

PRONUNCIATION: pri-DAY-shuhs)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Preying on other animals.
2. Seeking to exploit others.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin praedari (to prey upon), from praeda (booty). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize or to take), which is also the source of pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, osprey, prison, impregnable, impresa, prise, and reprehend. Earliest documented use: 1665.
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PREDATIOUS - occurring before, especially before acknowledgments of debt

PREFACIOUS - tending to give lengthy and tedious introductory remarks

PRUDACIOUS - conspicuously prim and proper, not to say Victorian