Pursue

How to spell pursue

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pursue

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pursue mean?

1. verbTo follow or chase someone or something in order to catch it, or to strive steadily toward a goal.

Pursue in a sentence

• The detectives decided to pursue the suspect across the city.

• She left her job to pursue a degree in architecture.

Where does pursue come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Pursue comes from the Latin verb prosequi, which combined pro, meaning 'forward' or 'onward', with sequi, meaning 'to follow'; together they meant 'to follow after' or 'chase'. In the Vulgar Latin spoken across the late Roman world this drifted toward a form like prosequere, which passed into Old French as poursuir or pursuir, meaning 'to chase' or 'to prosecute'. English borrowed it in the 1300s, keeping both the literal sense of physically chasing something and the figurative sense of striving after a goal. The same sequi root sits inside many familiar relatives: sequence, consecutive, prosecute, and even sue itself, which is why pursue ends in that slightly surprising 'sue' rather than a plain '-oo'. That French-flavoured 'pur-' opening and the silent-feeling 'sue' ending are exactly the spots where writers slip, often dropping a letter or writing 'per-'.

How the word is built

• pur- (forward, from Latin pro: forth)
• sue (from Latin sequi: to follow)