preu

Forms

preu m (plural preus)^[1] The oldest documents write pret, prep, pretz and prez.^[2] The DCVB records /pɾέw/ and /pɾé̞w/.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan preu, which is inherited from Latin pretium (“price, value; reward”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Romanian preț, Italian prezzo and Old Occitan pretz; Spanish precio and Portuguese preço are semi-learned.^[6][7] The troubadours used their word for both price and worth.^[8]

The early spellings with ⟨t⟩, ⟨tz⟩ and ⟨z⟩ reflect the pronunciation before the consonant became a vowel: Coromines thinks they sounded roughly /preð/, with a fricative consonant that soon became the vowel /u/ of /prew/.^[2] Some of these spellings may already have been only traditional writing.^[2] Wiktionary sets up a pre-literary form */ˈpɾɛt͡s/.^[1]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from a Proto-Italic adjective meaning "exchange value", built on the preposition *preti (“against”), and finds no viable alternative.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines gives the 13th century as the first record, with older documents that still write the word pret or prez.^[2] In a 12th-century document from the Segarra, someone put sheep taken from another man en prep, into the price of a purchase.^[2] The first record of the spelling preu in CICA is the Catalan Usatges de Barcelona, from the first half of the 13th century; the Costums de Tortosa (1272) speak of goods sold per poc preu, o per gran.^[10][2][4]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning preu also meant honour and good name: in Jaume I's chronicle the count of Empúries urges the king to win back lo pretz que havem perdut, and the king hopes to leave bon preu by his deeds.^[2] Coromines thinks this moral sense owes something to the old verb prear "to praise", from Latin pretiare, as well as to a figurative use of the money sense.^[2] Muntaner uses nom e preu for fame, and Faraudo also records the sense "prize, reward".^[11]

Medieval texts have the phrases a preu per preu, "at the same cost", and no guardar-hi preu, "to buy at any cost" (1311).^[11] The moral sense stayed in use in literary language; today the word means first the money paid for something and, by extension, the sacrifice something costs.^[2][12] Labèrnia's dictionary (1839) has the senses price, wage and esteem.^[13] Pal·las's dictionary (1927) records a preu fet for work paid by the job.^[14]

Old derivatives are menyspreu and menysprear (Llull); apreciar (15th century) and depreciar are borrowings from Latin.^[4]

Timeline

• 12th century – a document from the Segarra has the spelling prep.^[2]
• 1200–1249 – preu in the Catalan Usatges de Barcelona.^[10]
• 1244–1274 – Jaume I's Llibre dels fets writes both pretz and preu for honour.^[2]
• 1272 – the Costums de Tortosa use it of a sale price.^[4][5]
• 13th century – Llull writes of Christ sold per vil preu.^[15]
• 1325 – Muntaner uses nom e preu, "name and fame".^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general defines it as the money to be given in exchange for something.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. price: the amount of money or goods given in exchange for something: Els preus dels pisos no paren de pujar.^[12][5][1]
2. (figurative) What something costs in effort or sacrifice: Va pagar un preu molt alt per la seva independència.^[12][17]
3. (economics) The rate of exchange between goods, in phrases such as preu de cost and preu unitari.^[12][5]
4. a preu fet: by the job, for a sum fixed in advance; hence, hastily.^[12][14]
5. (dated) worth, esteem, good name.^[3][2]

Word family

• apreuar
• apreuament
• menyspreu
• menysprear
• menyspreable

Related words

• apreciar
• depreciar
• preciós
• Latin pretium
• Spanish precio
• Occitan prètz

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 806
3. ^ a b c Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. preu
4. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 750
5. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. preu
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6746
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 631
8. ^ Raynouard, François-Just-Marie (1838–1844), Lexique roman, ou dictionnaire de la langue des troubadours, 6 vols., Paris: Silvestre, p. 4, 639
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. preu
11. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. preu
12. ^ a b c d e Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. preu
13. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. preu
14. ^ a b Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. preu
15. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. preu
16. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. preu
17. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. preu