What’s Progress?

Progress: Pro- Gress (mass noun, or verb (no object))

noun | ˈprəʊɡrɛs | [mass noun]
1 forward or onward movement towards a destination: the darkness did not stop my progress | they failed to make any progress up the estuary.
[count noun] archaic a state journey or official tour, especially by royalty.
2 development towards an improved or more advanced condition: we are making progress towards equal rights.

verb | prəˈɡrɛs | [no object]
1 move forward or onward in space or time: as the century progressed the quality of telescopes improved.
[with object] (usually as adjective progressed) Astrology calculate the position of (a planet) or of all the planets and coordinates of (a chart) according to the technique of progression.
2 develop towards an improved or more advanced condition: work on the pond is progressing.
[with object] cause (a task or undertaking) to make progress: I cannot predict how quickly we can progress the matter.

Peter Brown, University of Maryland:
Reduction of disease, violence, famine, and malnutrition, as well as the elimination of unjustified taxes and political corruption.

Post 1990s, Progressive ideology seemed to have become “compatible with virtually everything” and that was a problem because if progress became all things to all people, it would “lead to a lack of focus.”

PHRASES
in progress
in the course of being done or carried out: a meeting was in progress.
ORIGIN
late Middle English (as a noun): from Latin progressus ‘an advance’, from the verb progredi, from pro- ‘forward’ + gradi ‘to walk’. The verb became obsolete in British English use at the end of the 17th century and was readopted from American English in the early 19th century.

Biography:
Apple dictionary Version 2.2.2 (203)
Brown, Peter A. “A progressive manifesto.” The Good society, vol 8, no 1, winter 1998 page 64 65

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