Prest

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Archaic adjective meaning willing and ready for action ; a sum paid in advance, especially a loan or earnest money given to a soldier ; an old spelling for a member of the clergy
2. Ready or set in position, in older English usage ; an advance of money given before it is owed, historically to hire or bind a servant or soldier ; an obsolete form of the word for a priest
3. Meaning prepared and willing, as in older writing ; a payment made beforehand, such as earnest money or a loan ; a variant spelling used long ago for a man ordained to minister

Etymology: The English "prest," meaning ready or prepared, came into Middle English from Old French "prest," a word with the same sense. Its deeper ancestry runs back to Latin "praesto," which meant "at hand" or "ready to serve," and "praestare," which meant "to stand before," "to excel," or "to furnish." The Latin verb itself combined "prae" ("before") with "stare" ("to stand"), so the core image is of someone standing out front, present and available. French then took the Latin root in a second direction. The Old French verb "prester" developed the sense of lending or furnishing something ready for use, and from it came the noun-like form "prest," meaning a loan of money or a payment made in advance. That sense of ready cash handed over before the work is done survives in the English word "prest," which is the same word passing through a different French channel, and it shows how closely "ready" and "advance" were once linked.

Synonyms: ready