Proud
late Old English prūt, prūd ‘having a high opinion of one's own worth’, from Old French prud ‘valiant’, based on Latin prodesse ‘be of value’. The phrase proud flesh dates back to late Middle English, but the sense ‘slightly projecting’ is first recorded in English dialect of the 19th century.
wiktionary
From Middle English proud, prout, prut, from Old English prūd, prūt(“proud, arrogant, haughty”) (compare Old English prȳtung(“pride”); prȳde, prȳte(“pride”)). Cognate with German Low German praud, Old Norse prúðr(“gallant, brave, magnificent, stately, handsome, fine”) (Icelandic prúður, Middle Swedish prudh, Danish prud), probably from Old French prod, prud(“brave, gallant”) (modern French preux), from Late Latin prōde(“useful”), derived from Latin prōdesse(“to be of value”); however, the Old English umlaut derivatives prȳte, prȳtian, etc. suggest the word may be older and possibly native. See also pride.
etymonline
proud (adj.)
late Old English prud, prute "excellent, splendid; arrogant, haughty, having or cherishing a high opinion of one's own merits; guilty of the sin of Pride," from Old French prud, oblique case of adjective prouz "brave, valiant" (11c., Modern French preux; compare prud'homme "brave man"), from Late Latin prode "advantageous, profitable" (source also of Italian prode "valiant"), a back-formation from Latin prodesse "be useful."
This is a compound of pro- "before, for, instead of" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "in front of, before, first, chief") + esse "to be" (from PIE root *es- "to be"). Also see pride (n.), prowess. "The -d- in prodesse is probably due to the influence of forms like red-eo-, 'I go back,' red-imo- 'I buy back,' etc." [OED]. The Old English form with -te probably is from or influenced by pride (Old English pryto).
Meaning "elated by some act, fact, or thing" is from mid-13c. The sense of "of fearless or untamable spirit" is by c. 1400; that of "ostentatious, grand, giving reason for pride" is by mid-14c. To do (someone) proud is attested by 1819. The surname Proudfoot is attested from c. 1200 (Prudfot). A Middle English term for "drunk and belligerent" was pitcher-proud (early 15c.).
The sense of "having a high opinion of oneself," not found in Old French, might reflect the Anglo-Saxons' opinion of the Norman knights who called themselves "proud." Old Norse pruðr, either from the same French source or borrowed from Old English, had only the sense "brave, gallant, magnificent, stately" (compare Icelandic pruður, Middle Swedish prudh, Middle Danish prud).
Likewise a group of "pride" words in the Romance languages — such as French orgueil, Italian orgoglio, Spanish orgullo — are borrowings from Germanic, where they had positive senses (Old High German urgol "distinguished").
Most Indo-European languages use the same word for "proud" in its good and bad senses, but in many the bad sense seems to be the earlier one. The usual way to form the word is by some compound of terms for "over" or "high" and words for "heart," "mood," "thought," or "appearance;" such as Greek hyperephanos, literally "over-appearing;" Gothic hauhþuhts, literally "high-conscience." Old English had ofermodig "over-moody" ("mood" in Anglo-Saxon was a much more potent word than presently) and heahheort "high-heart."
Words for "proud" in other Indo-European languages sometimes reflect a physical sense of being swollen or puffed up; such as Welsh balch, probably from a root meaning "to swell," and Modern Greek kamari, from ancient Greek kamarou "furnish with a vault or arched cover," with a sense evolution via "make an arch," to "puff out the chest," to "be puffed up" (compare English slang chesty).
proud (n.)
"proud or haughty person or persons," late Old English, from proud (adj.).
proud (adv.)
early 14c., "proudly, haughtily," from proud (adj.).
