early 14c., purveiour, "one who goes ahead to prepare the way;" also "one who is in charge of provisions for a household;" mid-14c., "one who procures and supplies necessities," from Anglo-French purveyour, Old French porveor (13c.), agent noun from porveoir (see purvey).
early 15c., confit, "sugarplum, sugary sweet, type of fruit or root preserved with sugar and dried," from Old French confit "preserved fruit," from Latin confectum, from confectionem, noun use of confectus, past participle of conficere "to prepare" (see confection). Forms with -m- appear from mid-15c.
1530s, "begin legal action against, summon in a court of law," from French processer "to prosecute," from proces (see process (n.)). Meaning "prepare or treat by special process, subject to special process" is from 1881, from the noun in English. Of persons, "to register and examine," by 1935, in reference to the U.S. Army. Related: Processed; processing.
c. 1300, from Anglo-French severer, Old French sevrer "to separate" (12c., later in French restricted to "to wean," i.e. "to separare from the mother"), from Vulgar Latin *seperare, from Latin separare "to pull apart," from se- "apart" (see secret (n.)) + parare "make ready, prepare" (from PIE root *pere- (1) "to produce, procure").
Old English tol "instrument, implement used by a craftsman or laborer, weapon," from Proto-Germanic *tōwalan "implement" (source also of Old Norse tol), from a verb stem represented by Old English tawian "prepare" (see taw). The ending is the instrumental suffix -el (1). Figurative sense of "person used by another for his own ends" is recorded from 1660s. Slang meaning "penis" first recorded 1550s.
"to fill, charge, load" (a weapon, before firing), 1510s, probably from prime (adj.). General sense of "perform the first operation on, prepare (something, especially wood, etc., for painting)" is from c. 1600. To prime a pump (1769) meant to pour water down the tube, which saturated the sucking mechanism and made it draw up water more readily. Related: Primed; priming.
