An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

The path of either → celestial poles around the → ecliptic pole due to the → precession of equinox. It takes about 26,000 years for the celestial pole to complete path.

→ precessional; → circle.

1) Meteo.: Any form of water, such as rain, snow, sleet, or hail, that falls to the Earth's surface. The quantity of such water falling in a specific area within a specific period.
2) Chemistry: The process of separating a solid substance from a solution.

From M.Fr. précipitation, from L. præcipitationem "act or fact of falling headlong, haste," from præcipitare "fall, be hasty," from præceps "steep, headlong, headfirst," from præ- "forth" + caput, → head.

1) Bâreš, verbal noun of bâridan "to rain," bârân "rain;" Mid.Pers. vâritan, vârân; Av. vār- "rain; to rain;" cf. Skt. vār- "rain, water; to rain;" PIE base *uer- "water, rain, river."
Rizeš, verbal noun of rixtan "to flow, to pour," → overflow.
2) Tahnešast "to settle down, precipitate," from tah "→ bottom, end;" + nešast past stem of nešastan "to sit down; to settle down; to sink," → sit.

1) Definitely or sharply stated, or defined.
2) Designating → precision.
See also: → accurate, → exact.

M.E., from M.Fr. précis "cut short" from M.L. precisus, from L. præcisus "abridged, cut off," p.p. of præcidere "to cut off, shorten," from præ- "in front," → pre-, + cædere "to cut down, chop, beat, hew, slay."

Parsun literally "cut around" (compare with Skt. pariccheda "precise, accurate definition, exact discrimination," from pari- + cheda "cut, cutting off," from chid- "to cut, split"), from par-, variant of pirâ- "around, about," → peri-, + sun "to cut;" cf. Kurd. Sorani su, sun "to sharpen, whet;" Kurd. Kurmanji (prefixed ha-, contraction of *ham-) hasun "to sharpen, whet;" Mod.Pers. sân "whetstone," variants fasân, afsân, awsân; Av. si-, sā- "to cut;" cf. Skt. śā- "to sharpen, whet" (see also → concrete).

In a precise manner.

→ precise; → -ly.

The quality or state of being very accurate.

→ precise; → -ness.

1) The state or quality of being → precise.
2) The degree to which repeated measurements of a quantity give the same results under unchanged conditions. Not the same as → accuracy, but often confused as such. See → accuracy for the difference between precision and accuracy.

Verbal noun from → precise.

1) A person or thing that comes before another of the same kind; a forerunner.
2) A substance from which another is formed, especially by metabolic reaction (OxforddDctionaries.com)

M.E., from L. præcursor "forerunner," from præcursus, p.p. of præcurrere, from præ- "before," → pre-, + currere "to run," → current.

Pišgâm, from piš- "before," → pre-, + gâm "step, pace," → stage.

A component of a → pulsar pulse that appears shortly in advance of the main pulse.

→ precursor; → pulse.

1) Act of plundering or robbing; predatory behavior.
2) The preying of one animal on others.

Verbal noun, → prey.

Zoology: Any organism that exists by preying upon other organisms (Dictionary.com).

Agent noun from → prey.

1) Of, or relating to a predator.
2) Living by preying on other living animals.

Agent noun from → prey.

1a) Grammar: The part of a → sentence or → clause stating something about the → subject and usually consisting of a → verb. For example, in the sentence "The man opened the door," the subject is "the man" and the predicate is "opened the door."
1b) Logic: Something which is affirmed or denied concerning the subject in a → proposition.

1c) Math.: A → function whose values are statements about n-tuples of objects forming the values of its → arguments. For n =1 a predicate is called a "property" , for n> 1 a → relation; propositions may be regarded as zero-place predicates (encyclopediaofmath.org).
2a) To state, affirm, or assert (something) about the subject of a proposition.
2b) To make (a term, expression, etc.) the predicate of a proposition.

M.E., from M.Fr. predicat, from L. praedicatus "declared, proclaimed," p.p. of praedicare, from prae "beforehand," → pre-, + dicare "proclame," from stem of dicere "to speak, to say," from PIE root *deik- "to point out, to show," cognate with Pers. dis, → form, and andišidan, → think.

Farâsan from farâ- "before; toward, along; above, upon, over," → pro-, + san Proto-Ir. *sanh- "to declare, explain," related to soxan, → speech and pâsox, → response, sahân, → sentence.

The generic term for systems of → formal logic like → first-order logic and → second-order logic. Predicate logic contains → variables which can be quantified (→ quantify, → quantification).

→ predicate; → logic.

In a → formal language, a letter used to describe a → predicate or → relation. Also called → relation symbol.

→ predicate; → symbol.

To like better or value more highly.

M.E. preferre, from O.Fr. preferer and directly from L. praeferre "to place or set before, carry in front," from prae "before," → pre-, + ferre "to carry, to bear," from PIE root *bher- "to carry;" cf. Pers. bordan "to carry, bear," → refer.

Behzunidan, literally "to value highly, to consider better," from beh "good, fine," → optimum, + zun, variant of dân-, dânestan "to know, consider," cf. Tâti zun/zund "to know," Khunsâri zûn-/zûnâ, Mahallâti zôn-, Semnâni -zûn-, Hamedâni zunayän/zun- , Esfahâni zunän/zun-, Yarandi zônâj-/zôn-, Gazi zûn-/zûnâšt; Av. zān- "to know," → science.

Worthy to be preferred; more desirable.

→ prefer; → -able.

1) Act of → preferring.
2) That which is preferred.

→ prefer; → -ence.

An → affix that is placed before a base to denote a modified meaning or make another word.

→ pre-; → affix.

Carefully chosen uniform exposure of a detector. For CCD this can be used to overcome the deferred charge phenomenon; in photography this helps bring dim images to a comfortably high density.

→ pre- + → flash.

1) Philosophy: To apprehend with or without conscious formulation or cognition of the perceived object; to interact in time and space with an object or event (Oxford Dictionary, lexico.com).
2) (obsolete) To sieze.

From L. prehendere "to seize," from prae- "before," → pre-, + -hendere , from PIE root *ghend- "to seize, take," root of Gk. khandanein "to hold, contain;" Lith. godetis "be eager;" Welsh gannu "to hold, contain;" Russian za-gadka "riddle;" Old Norse geta "to obtain, reach; to be able to;" E. get.

Nutidan, from nut-, from Yaghnobi nôta "to take," from Sogd. niyât "to take, grasp," from Proto-Ir. *ni-yāta-, from *iam- "to take, to hold;" cf. Av. yam- (yās-) "to hold, keep;" O.Pers. yas- "to strech, reach out;" Skt. yam- "to hold, restrain" (Cheung 2007).