Prolong

How to spell prolong

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce prolong

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does prolong mean?

1. verbTo make something last longer in time, or to extend its duration.

Prolong in a sentence

• The surgeon explained that the new treatment could prolong his life by several years.

• Trying to prolong the meeting past lunch only annoyed the staff.

Where does prolong come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin prolongare, meaning 'to extend' or 'to lengthen', which was built from the prefix pro-, here carrying the sense of 'forth' or 'forward', and longus, the ordinary Latin adjective for 'long'. English picked it up in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by way of Old French prolonguer, at first in the sense of putting something off or deferring it in time. The same longus root sits visibly inside everyday relatives such as 'long', 'longitude', and even 'lounge', which makes the spelling fairly transparent once you see the hidden 'long' inside it. The literal idea is to push something further along, so when you prolong a meeting you are quite plainly drawing its length out. The straightforward 'pro' plus 'long' construction is why the word rarely causes serious spelling trouble.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward, forth)
• long (from Latin longus: long) = to lengthen out in time