pray: [13] Latin precārī meant ‘ask for, entreat, pray’ (it has given English deprecate [17] and imprecation [16]). In Vulgar Latin it became *precāre, which passed into English via Old French preier. The noun prayer [13] goes back ultimately to the Latin adjective precārius ‘obtained by asking or praying’ (source also of English precarious), which was derived from precārī. => deprecate, imprecation, precarious
pray (v.)
early 13c., "ask earnestly, beg," also (c. 1300) "pray to a god or saint," from Old French preier "to pray" (c.900, Modern French prier), from Vulgar Latin *precare (also source of Italian pregare), from Latin precari "ask earnestly, beg, entreat," from *prex (plural preces, genitive precis) "prayer, request, entreaty," from PIE root *prek- "to ask, request, entreat" (cognates: Sanskrit prasna-, Avestan frashna- "question;" Old Church Slavonic prositi, Lithuanian prasyti "to ask, beg;" Old High German frahen, German fragen, Old English fricgan "to ask" a question).
Parenthetical expression I pray you, "please, if you will," attested from 1510s, contracted to pray 16c. Related: Prayed; praying. Praying mantis attested from 1809. The "Gardener's Monthly" of July 1861 lists other names for it as camel cricket, soothsayer, and rear horse.
例文
1. We have a beautiful city and we pray it stays that way.
私たちの町はとても美しいので、それが維持されることを願っています。
2.And what, pray ,do you buy and sell,Major？
メージャー、すみません、あなたは何を売買していますか？
3.One can only pray that the team 's manager learns something from it.
みんなもチームの監督に教訓をくみ取ることを願うしかない。
4.She went to pray for the soul of her late husband.
彼女は亡夫の魂のために祈った。
5.His statement ended with the words:" Pray for me."