Proffer comes from Anglo-French proffrir, from Old French poroffrir, from por- (Latin pro- 'forth') + offrir ('to offer', from Latin offerre 'to present'). The historical chain includes Latin pro- and Latin offerre. The quoted older senses, "forth", "to offer", and "to present", supply the semantic anchors for proffer. The formation is best read as compound and borrowed: the word proffer carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a verb, "to offer something for acceptance". English derivatives include profferer; related English forms include offer. The result is a verb and noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.