# preserve
## English
### Alternative forms

* præserve (archaic)

### Etymology

From Middle English preserven, from Old French preserver, from Medieval Latin prēservāre (“keep, preserve”), from Late Latin praeservāre (“guard beforehand”), from prae (“before”, adverb) +‎ servāre (“maintain, keep”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /pɹəˈzɜːv/
* (General American) IPA: /pɹəˈzɝv/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)v

### Noun

preserve (countable and uncountable, plural preserves)
* A sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.
    Synonyms: jam, jelly, marmalade, conserve
* A reservation, a nature preserve.
** 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:Suppose Shakespeare had been knocked on the head some dark night in Sir Thomas Lucy's preserves, the world would have wagged on better or worse, the pitcher gone to the well, the scythe to the corn, and the student to his book; and no one been any the wiser of the loss.
* An activity with restricted access.
** 1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 86:No one can argue with that—neither the Army Commander nor Zhilinsky nor even the Grand Duke. That is the Emperor’s preserve. The Emperor says France must be saved. We can only do his bidding.
** 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.

#### Usage notes

More often used in the plural, as strawberry preserves, but the form without the -s can also be used as the plural form, or to refer to a single type.

#### Derived terms

* game preserve
* natural preserve
* shooting preserve

#### See also

* preserver

### Verb

preserve (third-person singular simple present preserves, present participle preserving, simple past and past participle preserved)
* To protect; to keep from harm or injury.
    Every people have the right to preserve its identity and culture.
** 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:When Pistol lies, do this, and fig me like / The bragging Spaniard.
* To save from decay by the use of some preservative substance, such as sugar or salt; to season and prepare (fruits, meat, etc.) for storage.
    to preserve peaches or grapes
* To maintain throughout; to keep intact.
    to preserve appearances; to preserve silence
** 1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, →OCLC, page 266:Better men than you, men who could believe and obey, twisted the entrails of iron and preserved the legend of fire.

#### Derived terms

* God preserve us
* preserving glass
* preserving pan

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “prēserven, v..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2018, retrieved 26 February 2020.

### Anagrams

* persever, perverse

## Portuguese
### Verb

preserve
* inflection of preservar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative

## Spanish
### Verb

preserve
* inflection of preservar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative