mindmap root((PRO)) proactive Acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes.
🌱Our president prides himself on being proactive, and is always imagining situations the company might be facing in three or four years. 🌳People who tend to react to a problem only when it's gotten serious could be called reactive people. Until recently, reactive （in this sense） didn't really have an antonym. So proactive was coined to describe the kind of person who's always looking into the future in order to be prepared for anything. A good parent attempts to be proactive on behalf of his or her children, trying to imagine the problems they might be facing in a few months or years. A company's financial officers study the patterns of the company's earnings to make sure it won't risk running short of cash at any point in the next year or two. Proactive has only been around a few decades, and it can still sometimes sound like a fashionable buzzword. pro bono Being, involved in, or doing professional work, and especially legal work, donated for the public good.
🌱The law firm allows her to do several hours of pro bono work every week, and she devotes it to helping poor immigrant families. 🌳In Latin, pro bono publico means "for the public good"; in English we generally shorten the phrase to pro bono. Donating free legal help to those who need it has long been a practice of American law firms; the American Bar Association actually recommends that all lawyers donate 50 hours a year. Pro bono work is sometimes donated by nonlegal firms as well. For example, an advertising firm might produce a 60-second video for an environmental or educational organization, or a strategic-planning firm might prepare a start-up plan for a charity that funds shelters for battered women. proponent One who argues in favor of something: advocate.
🌱The new governor is a proponent of a longer school year, and he's gotten a lot of support from parents. 🌳Proponent comes from the same Latin word as propose, so a proponent is someone who proposes something, or at least supports it by speaking and writing in favor of it. Thus, for example, proponents of casinos argue that they create jobs, whereas proponents of a casino ban—that is, casino opponents—argue that they're corrupting and they take money away from people who can't afford it. As a rule, just about anything important that gets proposed also gets opposed. pro forma Done or existing as something that is required but that has little true meaning or importance.
🌱The letter she received from him after her husband's death struck her as pro forma, and she knew the old friendship between the two men had never really been repaired. 🌳A lot of things are done for the sake of appearances. A teacher might get officially observed and evaluated every three years, even though everyone knows she's terrific and the whole thing is strictly pro forma. A critic might say that a orchestral conductor gave a pro forma performance, since his heart wasn't in it. A business owner might make a pro forma appearance at the funeral of a politician's mother, never having met her but maybe hoping for a favor from her son sometime in the future. In business, pro forma has some special meanings; a pro forma invoice, for example, will list all the items being sent but, unlike a true invoice, won't be an actual bill.