appraise

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English appreisen, also apreisen and apraisen,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Old French aprisier (“to appraise, set a price on”),^[4][5][3][2] from Late Latin appretiō (“to value, estimate”), formed from ad- (“to”) and pretium (“price”).^[4][2][5] Ayto notes that it is not clear whether the French verb came from Late Latin or was formed anew on pris (“price”).^[6] The spelling with ai reflects the influence of praise;^[4][3][6] the OED, the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the word as an alteration of apprize, the earlier form with the same meaning, by association with praise, and the OED also allows a formation from the prefix a- and praise on the model of apprize.^{[7][8][9][10]} Barnhart instead holds that apprize and appraise were borrowed at the same time.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To set a price on: before 1420, in Lydgate's Troy Book, according to Barnhart.^[2] The OED's first quotation, from a London letter-book of 1424, has the sense "to fix the price of, especially as an official valuer".^[7]

Semantic evolution

Ayto writes that the older spellings apprize and apprise lasted into the 19th century, while the figurative meaning "estimate the worth of" gradually came to the fore, and that the influence of praise was at work from the 16th century, until appraise was firmly established in the 19th.^[6] Johnson (1755) still defined it only as "to set a price upon any thing, in order to sale".^[11] The OED records the sense "to judge the quality or worth of" from 1823, and the Oxford Dictionary of English dates the current sense to the mid 19th century.^[7][10] In 1913 it was first used for assessing an employee's performance at work.^[7] A confusion with apprise, to inform, is recorded from 1706;^[7] Ayto stresses that the two verbs are unrelated, apprise coming from French appris, learned.^[6] The noun appraisal was formed in 1817, in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1420 – to set a price on, in Lydgate's Troy Book.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from 1424.^[7]
• 1706 – to inform, by confusion with apprise.^[7]
• 1823 – to judge the quality or worth of; to scrutinize critically.^[7]
• 1913 – to assess an employee's performance at work.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set a value or price on, especially officially: An expert appraised the jewellery for the insurers.^[3][12][7]
2. To judge the worth, quality or importance of; to evaluate: The panel appraised each proposal in turn.^[3][12][7]
3. To assess an employee's performance at work, especially in a formal review.^[7][8]

Word family

• appraisable
• appraisement
• appraiser
• appraisee
• appraisingly
• appraisive
• unappraised
• misappraise
• appraisal

Related words

• appreciate
• precious
• price
• praise
• prize
• apprize
• apprise

Usage notes

Appraise is sometimes used by mistake for apprise, to inform: one is apprised, not appraised, of a fact.^[12][7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins