prea

Forms

prea f (plural preas)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote preda, in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, the Libro de Alexandre and Berceo, and priea.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish prea, inherited from Latin praeda (“booty”).^[4][5][1] Corominas treats it with prender, since the Latin noun is related to prehendō (“to seize”).^[4] It is a doublet of presa.^[1] The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 to 1917 derived the noun from the verb prear.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese preia, Galician prea, French proie, Italian preda and Romanian pradă.^[8][9][10] The REW explains the closed /e/ of the French, Occitan and Spanish forms, against the open vowel of Italian, by association with Latin prēnsa (“seized”).^[8] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *prai-χod-ā- (“booty”), from the prefix that became prae- and the root of the verb, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʰend- (“to grab”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds prea in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[4] The earliest text in the CDH that survives in an original of its time is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–1250): que partan la prea enel dia dela partiçion “let them divide the booty on the day of the sharing-out”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word both for the act of seizing or plundering and for what was taken, usually booty or cattle carried off in a raid; both senses appear in the prose of Alfonso X.^[12][4] It is found in Juan Ruiz and in the Laws of the Moors of the 14th and 15th centuries.^[4] The Academy has labelled it obsolete since 1817, equal to presa, and the DLE now marks only the sense “act of taking” as obsolete.^[13][14][5] In Galician préa came to mean a good mouthful.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[4][15]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy, has preda.^[2]
• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes uses prea for booty to be shared.^[2]
• 1221 – the Fuero de Plasencia.^[3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses preas for spoils left on the field.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy labels it obsolete, the same as presa.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from prear.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) Something seized or taken; booty, prey.^[5][1]
2. (obsolete) The act of seizing, taking or plundering.^[5][16]

Related words

• presa
• prender
• prear
• Latin praeda
• Portuguese preia

Usage notes

Prea is also a form of the verb prear.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. prea
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. prea
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 638
5. ^ a b c d 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. prea
6. ^ 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. 856
7. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1361
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6714
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5191
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2692
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. prea
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 695
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 625
15. ^ 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. prea
16. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. prea