Purdue

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. To chase or follow someone or something persistently and at close range
2. To go after or pursue relentlessly, staying near or close behind
3. To follow or chase in a determined way, keeping near to the target

Etymology: "Purdue" is an old oath, and its surprising feature is that it was built from two French words that sound like a prayer. It comes from French "pour" meaning "for" and "Dieu" meaning "God," so the phrase amounts to "for God" or "by God." Middle English speakers used it as a mild exclamation, in the way people once swore by God, saints or the Virgin without meaning to commit blasphemy in full. Its arrival in English reflects the close contact between French and English after the Norman Conquest, when French was the language of the court and much of the upper class. Oaths and interjections are often the first things borrowed in such situations, because they are used so often and so informally. The form was written as "purdew" or "purdeu" in Middle English, and the spelling gradually settled into the modern "purdue" over the centuries.