Dictionary verb auf verb *per führen aufführen

aufführen

(auf verb)

Meanings

1.
to present, to show
(In the context of presenting a play or opera or something similar. The original sense was probably "leading onto the stage". Sounds a bit "classy" so it's not a good fit for stand-up comedy.)
How useful:
2.
to list, to give
(In the context of listing reasons or arguments. Sounds a bit formal.)
How useful:
3.
to behave
("sich+Acc aufführen" - usually used in contexts where someone behaves in a way that DOESN'T fit. )
How useful:

Word Family

Root: *per

The core idea of this root was:

going beyond, going forth

And a lot of its children revolve in some way around the idea of travelling or exploring – like for instance the German fahren and führen or the English further.
It’s the origin of Latin prefixes like per-, pro-, pro- and also of the Germanic branch around for(e) and German vor, which are all about either “going forth” or a more abstract notion of going beyond a boundary.

The root is also the origin of German fahren and führen  and the English fare, which all come from a sense of travelling, going into the unknown.

You can get a really good understanding of how the core idea can lead to various meanings by looking at German ver-.

The family is very big, but here’s an incomplete list of English members:

  • pre- (mixed)
  • pro-  (mixed)
  • per- (mixed)
  • para- (beyond)
  • to fare, far (venturing)
  • for (from person A to person B)
  • forward, forth, further (going ahead)
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