prayer

English 'prayer' comes from Middle English preiere, borrowed from Old French preiere, which traces to Early Medieval Latin precāria, itself from Latin precem, meaning an entreaty. It could also form more simply from pray plus the suffix -er.

The word arrived through French into Middle English, replacing the native Old English term ġebed, which survives today in an unexpected form.

That displaced Old English word, ġebed, didn't vanish entirely — it lives on as the modern English word 'bead,' from the practice of counting prayers on strung beads.