(a) Of persons, speech, manner: harsh, severe, stern; (b) rigorously moral, austere; (c) grim, fierce. …

(a) One of the four humors, black bile; a bodily fluid which helps to form and nourish the body; -- not pathological unless present in excessive amounts; also, an altered form of black bile [see (b)]……

A common prefix in words derived from Latin or French; e.g., probleme, processionarie, progenitour, pronosticacioun, propugnacle, prosperite, provincial (nouns); profounde, prolixe, propicious,……