Offices and forms

The list an official letter is built from. In the middle of it is proroger, and the English word from the same Latin means very nearly the opposite. Proroger un délai is to *extend* it — to give somebody longer — and la prorogation is that extension: le permis a été prorogé de six mois is good news. English « to prorogue » is used almost only of a parliament, and it means to *end* the session: a prorogued parliament has stopped sitting. Latin prorogare meant to prolong, so French kept the original and English narrowed it to one constitutional act whose effect is the opposite. The English for the French word is « to extend » or « to renew ». And it has nothing to do with « to prorate », which is a different verb about dividing a sum.