conserve
pronunciation
How to pronounce conserve in British English:
UK [kənˈsɜːv , ˈkɒnsɜːv]
How to pronounce conserve in American English:
US [kənˈsɜːrv , ˈkɑːnsɜːrv]
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- Noun:
- fruit preserved by cooking with sugar
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- Verb:
- keep constant through physical or chemical reactions or evolutionary change
- keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss, or destruction
- use cautiously and frugally
- preserve with sugar
Word Origin
- conserve
- conserve: [14] Latin servāre meant ‘keep, preserve’ (it was not related to servus ‘slave’, source of English serve and servant). Among the compounds formed from it were praeservāre ‘guard in advance’ and, using the intensive prefix com-, conservāre. This passed into English via Old French conserver. Amongst its derivatives are conservation [14], conservative [14] (first used in the modern political sense by J Wilson Croker in 1830), and conservatory [16] (whose French original, conservatoire, was reborrowed in the 18th century in the sense ‘musical academy’).=> observe, preserve, reserve
- conserve (v.)
- late 14c., from Old French conserver (9c.), from Latin conservare "to keep, preserve, keep intact, guard," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + servare "keep watch, maintain" (see observe). Related: Conserved; conserving. As a noun (often conserves) from late 14c.
Example
- 1. It is developing plans to conserve every important crop on the planet .
- 2. Many companies are mothballing mines and curtailing exploration to conserve cash as prices tumble .
- 3. For me this was an important way to conserve energy .
- 4. Nature seems to conserve connectance .
- 5. If water costs more , they say , we will conserve it better .