Prioritize
/praɪˈɔːrɪtaɪz/noun
To rank something as more important than other things.
Did you know?Prioritize is built from Latin prior, meaning “earlier” or “first,” so the word’s hidden force is a very old human obsession: deciding what comes before everything else.
Etymological Timeline
Latin
Latin
prior
“earlier, former, first of two”
Late Latin
Latin
prioritas
“precedence; the state of being earlier or first”
14th Century
English
priority
“the condition of being earlier in time or order; precedence”
Early 19th Century
English
prioritize
“to give priority to; to treat as more important than other things”
Modern English
English
prioritize
“to rank or arrange according to importance”