apreciar

Forms

apreciar (first-person singular present aprecio, first-person singular preterite aprecié, past participle apreciado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin appretiare (“to set a price on”), formed from ad- and pretium (“price, value”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Corominas treats it beside precio, which came by a semi-learned route, and notes that the verb is learned in Catalan and Gallo-Romance too;^[6][1] DICCA-XV and Wiktionary call it a borrowing from Latin.^[2][6][1] Autoridades took it for a Spanish compound of the prefix a- and the noun for “price”.^[7] The popular Portuguese verb is apreçar, beside the learned apreciar, first recorded in 1844.^[8]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *preti-o- (“exchange value”), from Proto-Indo-European *preti (“against”), the source also of Ancient Greek προτί (protí) and Sanskrit प्रति (práti).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), in the old sense “to value, to price”: the Cid received the swords and horses commo apreciaron en la cort “at the value set at court”.^[10][11] The early charters use it in the same way, as the Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) on the month from which the crops deuen seer apreçiadas “must be valued”.^[10][12]

Semantic evolution

For Covarrubias (1611) and Autoridades (1726) the verb still meant to set a price on goods for sale;^[13][7] Autoridades adds “to approve, to esteem”, with a quotation from the Conde Lucanor.^[13][7] Alfonso X's laws already use it for measuring the size or degree of something.^[14] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 has three senses: to set a price, to judge the worth of something, and to hold a person in esteem.^[15] The Vox dictionary considers the sense “to value for its quality” a calque of French apprécier.^[16] The current dictionary lists esteem and affection first, then “to perceive, to make out” and the rise in value of a currency, and keeps the sense “to price” in the fifth place.^[4]

Timeline

• 1020 – Corominas wonders whether aprezar in the Cortes of that year is the same verb.^[2]
• 1073 – apreciato in a charter from León and Castile.^[17]
• c. 1140 – apreciaron in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[10][3]
• 1256–1300 – the Siete Partidas use it for setting a price and for measuring.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: Latin taxo, apprecio, aestimo.^[18]
• 1536 – first record in the Americas, at Mexico City.^[19]
• 1726 – Autoridades adds “to esteem”.^[7]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the sense of personal esteem.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To appreciate, to recognise and value the merit of someone or something: Apreciamos mucho tu ayuda.^[4][1]
2. To feel affection or esteem for someone.^[4]
3. To perceive, to make out with the senses or the mind: Desde aquí se aprecia bien la diferencia.^[4][1]
4. (also reflexive) To rise in value, of a currency on the exchange market.^[4][1]
5. To set a price on goods for sale; to appraise.^[4][20]

Word family

• apreciable
• apreciación
• apreciador
• apreciativo
• aprecio
• despreciar

Related words

• precio
• precioso
• preciar
• prez
• Latin pretium
• English appreciate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 631
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. precio
4. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. apreciar
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 75
6. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. apreciar
7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 352
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2682
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 c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. apreciar
11. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 57
12. ^ Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 348
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 198
14. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. apreciar
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 87
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. apreciar
17. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. apreciar
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 295
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. aprecear
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. apreciar