means A series of steps or actions taken to reach a particular result, or the act of working something through over time.

from From Latin processus, 'an advance, a going forward,' from procedere — pro- 'forward' plus cedere 'to go' (the same cedere that strolls through proceed, recede, and concede). It entered English via Old French in the medieval period, first meaning simply a journey or progression onward; the sense of a methodical sequence of operations came later, as humans grew fond of breaking 'going forward' into numbered steps.