price

Pronunciation

• IPA: /praɪs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pris, borrowed from Old French pris (“price, value, wages, reward; honour, praise”) (modern prix),^[2][3][4] from Latin pretium (“reward, prize, value, price”).^[2][3][5] Etymonline derives pretium from Proto-Indo-European *pret-yo-, a form of *per-,^[3][5] and Merriam-Webster gives its basic meaning as “exchange”, comparing Greek προτί (protí, “toward”) and Sanskrit práti, “against, in return”.^[6][7] The verb comes partly from the noun and partly from a variant of prize, “to value”, from Old French prisier.^[3][4][8] Middle English pris meant “price”, “prize” and “praise”, and the three senses later split into praise, prize and price.^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Value, worth, also praise: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle;^[2] the money for which something is bought or sold is from before 1300^[10] or the mid-13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Recompense, reward and prize are senses from about 1250,^[2][3] and in Middle English the word also meant honour, pre-eminence and superiority, all now obsolete.^[8] The spelling price appears before 1382.^[2] In political economy the ratio of exchange of a commodity is its price, from 1691.^[10] A reward offered for someone's capture is a price on one's head.^[11] The verb meant “to value, praise” in the late 14th century, a sense that went with praise,^[3] and “to set the price of” from 1382^[10][2] or the late 15th century.^[3] Price out of the market is from 1938.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1200 – value, worth; praise (Ancrene Riwle).^[2]
• c. 1250 – recompense, reward.^[2]
• before 1300 – the money paid for a thing.^[10]
• before 1382 – the spelling price.^[2]
• 1382 – verb, to set the price of.^[10]
• 1691 – in political economy.^[10]
• 1938 – price out of the market.^[10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The amount of money or goods asked or given in exchange for something.
2. The cost at which something is gained, such as a sacrifice.
3. The amount needed to bribe someone.
4. A reward offered for the capture or killing of a person.
5. (archaic) Value or worth.

Verb

1. To set a price for.
2. To find out the price of.

Word family

• priceable
• pricer
• preprice
• priceless
• pricey
• price-cutting
• pricy
• bride-price

Related words

• prize
• praise
• precious
• appreciate
• depreciate
• interpret

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary distinguishes price, the money needed to buy something offered for sale, from charge, cost and expense.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin