Prettify comes from pretty (from Old English prættig 'cunning, crafty', from prætt 'trick') + the verb-forming suffix -fy (from Latin -ficare, from facere 'to make'). The historical chain includes Old English prættig and Latin facere. The quoted older senses, "cunning, crafty", "trick", and "to make", supply the semantic anchors for prettify. The formation is best read as suffixal, compound, and borrowed: the word prettify carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a verb, "to make superficially attractive". English derivatives include prettification and prettifier; related English forms include pretty and prettiness. The result is a verb whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.