The word was recorded in English by 1325, from Anglo-Norman French, and before that, Latin. The Statutes of the Realm, an early collection of English laws, used it to decide how many local peacekeeping officials a town needed, based on its size.
French first used the word in 1267, where it meant a person's salary, or wage. It entered English by way of Anglo-Norman. Behind the French form lay a Latin noun, built from a verb.
Behind the Latin verb lay two parts, a prefix meaning 'ahead', and a verb meaning 'to see'. That prefix traces to a Proto-Indo-European root, *per-, meaning 'forward'. The whole verb meant to look ahead, or to prepare in advance.
VIDEO and EVIDENT share the same root. VIDEO, Latin for 'I see', entered English in 1935 as the visual counterpart to 'audio'. EVIDENT entered English in the late fourteenth century, meaning clearly seen, or obvious.
By the late fourteenth century the word named the Pope's power to appoint clergy to English posts not yet vacant, bypassing the usual right of local patrons, a practice English kings tried repeatedly to restrict. The same word, in its plural form, was used in 1258 to name a set of reforms forced on King Henry III at Oxford, limiting royal power and demanding regular parliaments. By the seventeenth century the word described supplies kept ready for a journey or a siege.
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