Preis

Forms

Preis m (genitive Preises, plural Preise)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German prīs, borrowed from Old French pris (“praise, glory, reward, value, price”), from Latin pretium (“value, money, price, reward”).^[2][3][4][5] Kluge names French prix as the source and dates the loan to the 13th century,^[2] while Paul and the Duden date it to the end of the 12th century.^[5][4] The same Old French word gave Middle Low German prīs, Middle Dutch prijs and Middle English pris, whence Dutch prijs and English price.^[3][2]

The verb preisen is prīsen;^[2][4][3] Kluge and the Duden take it from preisier (“to value, esteem; to praise”), itself from Late Latin pretiō (“to value”), with its meaning drawn towards the noun, while Pfeifer sees a derivative of the noun influenced by the French verb.^[2][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German prīs appears from about 1150–1170 in the Alexanderlied of Pfaffe Lamprecht, and then widely in courtly poetry.^[6] It meant praise, fame and honour, the recognition of excellence, especially in combat, and the reward given as its token, and also worth or value.^[6][5][7] Walther, Hartmann's Iwein, Wolfram's Parzival and the Nibelungenlied use it in phrases such as prîs erwerben “to win renown”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German the word belonged to the vocabulary of courtly life: first “value”, then “praise”, “renown” and the prize of a tournament.^[2][5] The commercial sense “sum paid for a thing”, already present in Latin and Old French, is first found in Middle Low German in the 15th century; under Dutch influence it spread to High German in the 16th century and became general from the 17th.^[3][2][5] Before then the price of goods was expressed by Kauf.^[5] The phrase um jeden Preis “at any price” follows French à tout prix.^[5]

The sense “praise” survives mainly in elevated and religious language, while the sense “prize, award” is continued in compounds such as Preisträger and the Nobelpreis, founded by Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901.^[5][3][8] The verb preisen was at first weak; strong forms appear in late Middle High German, and weak ones survived in poetry into the 18th and 19th centuries (Gellert's dein Name sei gepreist).^[5][3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1150–1170 – prīs is used in the Alexanderlied of Pfaffe Lamprecht.^[6]
• Late 12th century – Paul and the Duden date the borrowing from Old French.^[5][4]
• c. 1200 – prīs “renown” is common in Hartmann, Walther and Wolfram.^[7]
• 15th century – Middle Low German prīs takes on the sense “price of goods”.^[3][5]
• 16th century – The commercial sense reaches High German.^[5][4][9]
• 17th century – “Price” becomes the usual sense in general use.^[3]
• 1901 – The Nobelpreis is awarded for the first time.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. price: the sum of money to be paid for goods or a service.^[8][1]
2. (figurative) What one must give up or put up with to obtain something: Der Erfolg hatte seinen Preis.^[8][10]
3. A prize or award for a winner or for special merit.^[8][1]
4. A reward offered for catching a wanted person.^[10]
5. (elevated) praise, glory, especially of God.^[8][3]

Word family

• Ehrenpreis
• Preiserhöhung
• Preisschild
• preiswert
• preiswürdig
• preisen
• Preisträger
• Nobelpreis

Related words

• English price
• English prize

Usage notes

Preis in preisgeben “to abandon, surrender” is a different word: Middle Low German prīs “booty”, borrowed in the 16th century from French prise “taking, capture”, and used in phrases like preis sein “to be booty”.^[11][12][4] Fixed phrases with the main word are um jeden Preis “at all costs”, um keinen Preis “not at any price” and hoch im Preis stehen “to fetch a high price”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 721
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 654
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 2086
8. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
10. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
11. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 2090
12. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de