Preserves

How to spell preserves

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce preserves

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does preserves mean?

1. verbKeeps something in its original or good condition, protecting it from harm, loss, or decay.
2. nounFruit cooked with sugar and stored in sealed jars to stop it from spoiling.

Preserves in a sentence

• verb

  The museum carefully preserves its oldest manuscripts in a climate-controlled vault.

• noun

  Jars of homemade preserves lined the pantry shelves all winter.

• verb

  Freezing the meat preserves its freshness for several months.

• noun

  She spread strawberry preserves thickly on her morning toast.

Where does preserves come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin praeservare, formed from prae, meaning 'before' or 'beforehand', and servare, meaning 'to keep, guard, or watch over'. The original idea was to keep something safe in advance, to protect it from harm or decay before any damage could occur. English took the word in the late 1300s through Old French preserver, first in the sense of guarding from injury or destruction. The culinary meaning, fruit kept from spoiling by cooking it with sugar, grew naturally out of that same notion of protecting against decay. The servare root is the same one that survives in 'conserve', 'reserve', and 'observe', which is a useful reminder that the middle is spelled serv, not surv.

How the word is built

• pre- (before, beforehand)
• serv (from Latin servare: to keep, guard)
• -es (inflectional ending)