deprezzare

Forms

deprezzare (first-person singular present deprèzzo, first-person singular past historic deprezzài, past participle deprezzàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French déprécier (1762) in an adapted form, and the French verb is a learned formation on Late Latin dēpretiāre (“to lower the value of”).^[2][3][4][5] Nocentini, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli derive the Italian verb directly from the Late Latin one.^[6][7][8]

The Late Latin verb is formed on pretium (“worth, value, price”) with the privative prefix dē-.^[9][1][10] The same learned verb is Catalan depreciar, Spanish depreciar and Portuguese depreciar.^[3]

Old Italian already had Latinate forms of the Late Latin verb, in a Pisan statute of 1322–1351 and an Abruzzese translation of Isidore of about 1350.^[3][11] The LEI keeps these apart from the 19th-century verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The modern verb is first recorded in 1839, in Molossi's dictionary, with the sense “to make something go down in price or value”, together with the noun deprezzamento.^[2] The LEI's first example is from 1846.^[3] In the Pisan statute of 1322–1351 the older learned form meant “to make less valuable, to damage”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the Latinate verb had the senses “to make less valuable” and “to consider of little or no value, to scorn”, the second in the Abruzzese deprezare of about 1350.^[11][3] An abstract noun deprezziazione, “contempt, debasement”, borrowed from French in the Napoleonic period, is listed from 1812 to 1877.^[3]

The verb of 1839 belongs to economics: to lower the price of goods or to value them below their worth, as in De Marchi and Serao.^[2][10] The figurative sense of undervaluing a work or a person is in Gramsci (1931) and Piovene (1941), and deprezzarsi, of a currency or a good losing value, in Luigi Einaudi (1950).^[3][10]

Timeline

• 1322–1351 – A Pisan statute uses a learned form meaning “to make less valuable”.^[11]
• About 1350 – Abruzzese deprezare means “to scorn”.^[3]
• 1762 – French déprécier is first recorded.^[2]
• 1812 – Deprezziazione “debasement” appears in Bernardoni's dictionary.^[3]
• 1839 – Molossi records deprezzare and deprezzamento.^[2]
• 1931 – Gramsci uses the figurative sense “to undervalue”.^[3]
• 1950 – Luigi Einaudi uses deprezzarsi “to lose value”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lower the price or value of something; to depreciate: L'eccesso di offerta deprezza il raccolto.^{[7][8][12][4]}
2. (figurative) To undervalue, belittle or disparage a work, a merit or a person.^{[7][8][12][4]}
3. (pronominal, deprezzarsi) To lose value, to fall in price.^[8][13][4]

Word family

• deprezzamento
• deprezzativo

Related words

• prezzo
• apprezzare
• disprezzare
• French déprécier
• Latin depretio

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1286
4. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli