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:
Hi Emanuel.. I know it’s slightly OT but can you explain the meanings of aufführen please? The list looks neverending!
Not sure why I never replied, sorry for that. In case you read this still… the core theme of “aufführen” is that of presentation. Can be a show, your behavior or you listing a bunch of items.
Let me know what specific meaning there is that doesn’t seem to fit that description and I’ll try to clear it up.