preserve

Etymology

From Middle English preserven, from Old French preserver, from Medieval Latin prēservāre (“keep, preserve”), from Late Latin praeservāre (“guard beforehand”), from prae (“before”, adverb) + servāre (“maintain, keep”).

noun

1. A sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.
2. A reservation, a nature preserve.
   Suppose Shakespeare had been knocked on the head some dark night in Sir Thomas Lucy's preserves, the world would have wagged on better or worse, the pitcher gone to the well, the scythe to the corn, and the student to his book; and no one been any the wiser of the loss. 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque
3. An activity with restricted access.
   No one can argue with that—neither the Army Commander nor Zhilinsky nor even the Grand Duke. That is the Emperor’s preserve. The Emperor says France must be saved. We can only do his bidding. 1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 86
   The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. 2013-06-22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68

verb

1. To protect; to keep from harm or injury.
   Every people have the right to preserve its identity and culture.
2. To save from decay by the use of some preservative substance, such as sugar or salt; to season and prepare (fruits, meat, etc.) for storage.
   to preserve peaches or grapes
3. To maintain throughout; to keep intact.
   to preserve appearances; to preserve silence