Consultants are notorious abusers of words, constantly verbing nouns, nouning verbs, gluing together superficial chunks of words into ugly-sounding lumps with confused meaning, mystifying the obvious. I hope the following etymologies somehow make it all worse by showing how the disgusting word-abuse at the heart of consulting goes back to the dawn of language.

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Practice – Late Middle English : the verb from Old French practiser or medieval Latin practizare, alteration of practicare ‘perform, carry out,’ from practica ‘practice,’ from Greek praktike, feminine (used as a noun) of praktikos (see practical ); the noun from the verb in the earlier spelling practise, on the pattern of pairs such as advise, advice.

Praxis – Late 16th cent.: via medieval Latin from Greek, literally ‘doing,’ from prattein ‘do.’

Pragmatic – Late 16th cent.(in the senses of busy, interfering, conceited): via Latin from Greek pragmatikos ‘relating to fact,’ from pragma ‘deed’ (from the stem of prattein ‘do’ ). The current sense dates from the mid 19th cent.

Method – Late Middle English (in the sense of prescribed medical treatment for a disease): via Latin from Greek methodos ‘pursuit of knowledge,’ from meta– (‘with, across, or after,’ expressing development) + hodos ‘way.’

Technique – Early 17th cent.(as an adjective in the sense of to do with art or an art): from Latin technicus, from Greek tekhnikos, from tekhne ‘art.’ The noun dates from the 19th cent.

Process / procedure – Middle English : from Old French proces, from Latin processus ‘progression, course,’ from the verb procedere, from pro– ‘forward’ + cedere ‘go.’ . Current senses of the verb date from the late 19th cent.

Approach – Middle English : from Old French aprochier, aprocher, from ecclesiastical Latin appropiare ‘draw near,’ from ad– ‘to’ + propius (comparative of prope ‘near’ ).

Strategy – Early 19th cent.: from French strategie, from Greek strategia ‘generalship,’ from strategos, from stratos ‘army’ + agein ‘to lead.’

Way – Old English weg, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch weg and German Weg, from a base meaning of move, carry.

Style – Middle English (denoting a stylus (an ancient writing implement, consisting of a small rod with a pointed end for scratching letters on wax-covered tablets, and a blunt end for obliterating them), also a literary composition, an official title, or a characteristic manner of literary expression): from Old French stile, from Latin stilus.

Design – Late Middle English (as a verb in the sense of to designate): from Latin designare ‘to designate’ (based on signum ‘a mark’), reinforced by French designer. The noun is via French from Italian.

System – Early 17th cent.: from French systeme or late Latin systema, from Greek sustema, from sun– ‘with’ + histanai ‘set up.’

Pattern – Middle English patron, as in something serving as a model, from Latin patronus ‘protector of clients, defender,’ from pater, patr– ‘father.’ . The change in sense is from the idea of a patron giving an example to be copied. By 1700 patron ceased to be used of things, and the two forms became differentiated in sense.

Matter – Middle English : via Old French from Latin materia ‘timber, substance,’ also ‘subject of discourse,’ from mater ‘mother.’

Consult – Early 16th cent. (in the sense of deliberate together, confer): from French consulter, from Latin consultare, frequentative of consulere ‘take counsel.’ (NOTE: I’d have thought: Not con– ‘together’ + + saltare, from salire ‘to leap.’ However, see counsel, below)

• Insult – Mid 16th cent. (as a verb in the sense of exult, act arrogantly): from Latin insultare ‘jump or trample on,’ from in– ‘on’ + saltare, from salire ‘to leap.’ The noun (in the early 17th cent. denoting an attack) is from French insulte or ecclesiastical Latin insultus. The main current senses date from the 17th century.
• Somersault – Mid 16th cent.(as a noun): from Old French sombresault, from Provencal sobresaut, from sobre ‘above’ + saut ‘leap.’
• Counsel – Middle English : via Old French counseil (noun), conseiller (verb), from Latin consilium ‘consultation, advice,’ related to consulere.
• Conference – Late Middle English (in the general sense of bring together): from Latin conferre, from con– ‘together’ + ferre ‘bring.’
• Converse – Late Middle English (in the sense of live among, be familiar with): from Old French converser, from Latin conversari ‘keep company (with),’ from con– ‘with’ + versare, frequentative of vertere ‘to turn.’ The current sense of the verb dates from the early 17th cent.