Other forms: apprehended, apprehending, apprehends
To apprehend is to arrest somebody, or to grasp a meaning. Apprehend the suspect, apprehend the danger, hard to apprehend.
The arrest sense is police and legal language. The understanding sense is philosophical and now rare, though apprehension in the sense of fear is common — the fear sense grew from grasping what might happen before it does.
1verbapprehendTo arrest somebody, or to grasp a meaning.
“Police apprehended the thief as he tried to leave the building.”
apprehend is a seizing, or an understanding.
appre-HEND → a HAND
A hand comes down on his shoulder from behind, and in the same second two things happen: they have him, and he understands why.
hooks ontohand
Latin apprehendere means to seize — ad, to, plus prehendere, to grasp. Comprehend is the same verb.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰed- — to hold, seize, take; to find
Latin
apprehendere
Old French
apprehender
Middle English
apprehenden — to grasp, take hold of; to comprehend; to learn
English, today
apprehend
Built from
From Late Middle English apprehenden (“to grasp, take hold of; to comprehend; to learn”), from Old French apprehender (modern French appréhender (“to apprehend; to catch; to dread”)), from Latin apprehendere, adprehendere, the present active infinitive of apprehendō, adprehendō (“to grab, grasp, seize, take; to apprehend, arrest; to comprehend, understand; to embrace, include; to take possession of, obtain, secure”), from ap-, ad- + prehendō (“to grab, grasp, seize, snatch, take; to accost; to catch in the act, take by surprise; (figuratively, rare) of the mind: to apprehend, comprehend, grasp”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European gʰed- (“to hold, seize, take; to find”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA