Preserve

How to spell preserve

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce preserve

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does preserve mean?

1. verbTo keep something safe or maintain it in its original state, protecting it from loss, harm, or decay.
2. nounA food, especially fruit, cooked with sugar so that it keeps for a long time.
3. nounAn area of land or water kept protected for wildlife, hunting, or conservation.

Preserve in a sentence

• verb

  The museum works hard to preserve its oldest manuscripts.

• noun

  She spread a thick layer of homemade apricot preserve on the toast.

• noun

  The rangers patrol the nature preserve to deter poachers.

• verb

  Salting the meat helps preserve it through the long winter.

• noun

  The farm shop sells jars of quince preserve near the till.

• noun

  Hunting is strictly forbidden within the game preserve.

Where does preserve come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Preserve comes from the Latin praeservare, which combined prae meaning 'before' or 'in advance' with servare meaning 'to keep, watch over, or guard'. The compound carried the idea of keeping something safe ahead of time, of guarding it against future loss or decay. It reached English in the late 1300s by way of Old French preserver, and was first used in the sense of protecting from harm or maintaining in an unaltered state. The servare root is the same one that gives us 'conserve', 'reserve', and 'observe', which is why these words all share that tell-tale -serve ending. The cooking sense, food kept from spoiling by sugar or salt, grew naturally from the older idea of guarding something against decay, and the spelling trap is simply remembering that single s in the middle, since the word is built on serve and never doubles it.

How the word is built

• pre- (before, in advance)
• serve (from Latin servare: to keep, guard, watch over)