I’m not aware of any verb equivalents of a pronoun. We have to say “he did what?” We don’t just have a single word like we do for nouns that replaces the verb. But do proverbs function on this way at all? Is there some ancient etymological relationship between pronouns and proverbs?
asked Feb 25, 2022 at 4:02
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Are you talking about proverb meaning "pithy saying", or "pro-verb" meaning a generic word that stands for a verb (as described in @Laurel's answer)?– BarmarCommented Feb 25, 2022 at 17:02
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1Have you checked in say the Online Etymological Dictionary or an encyclopaedia?– Edwin AshworthCommented Mar 1, 2022 at 15:25
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1 Answer
Both words were first used in Middle English. Pronoun is a word that was created in English but modeled after its counterparts in Latin (pronomen) and French (pronom), using the prefix pro-. Proverb comes directly from Latin and French, the same sources that got us verb. Ultimately "pro" in both words comes from the same root. There are a lot of other words that are related in the same way: problem, provincial, procession, provide, etc.
English does have "pro-verbs", a term formed only in the 19th century as the verb counterpart to pronoun. We use a pro-verb in sentences like "I make pasta just like you do", where "do" means "make pasta". The hypernym that includes both terms and others is pro-form. See also Pro-Verb: The Complement to the Pronoun.
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1It should probably be noted that the origin of "verb" is Latin "verbum", which just meant "word", not specifically action words. This is where we get words like "verbally" and "verbiage".– BarmarCommented Feb 25, 2022 at 6:33