preț

Forms

preț n (plural prețuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pretium (“price, value; reward”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} De Vaan traces the Latin word to *preti (“against”), with cognates such as Ancient Greek πρός (prós).^[6][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian prezzo, Occitan pretz, Catalan preu, Spanish prez and Portuguese preço.^[2][7] Pușcariu notes that Aromanian uses other words for “price”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520), in the sense “price, value”.^[8] MDA2 and the DLR cite the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583): „Băgară sama prețului lor” “they reckoned up their price”.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

From the money asked or paid for a thing the word came to mean a payment or reward for work, and figuratively value and importance.^[10][2] Drăganu glosses it “payment” in an old text.^[11] Phrases grew from these senses: de preț “valuable”, cu orice preț “at any cost”, a pune preț pe ceva “to value something”.^[10][5] In colloquial use preț de measures an approximate time or distance: preț de o jumătate de oră “for about half an hour”.^[5][10]

Romanian formed prețui “to value” and prețuitor; the adjective prețios was borrowed later from French précieux.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – preț and prețul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8]
• c. 1563–1583 – prețului in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][9]
• 1589 – the plural prețuri in Coresi's psalter.^[8]
• 1649 – preț in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1675 – „voi da și prețul celuilalt case” “I will pay the price of the other house” in a document.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. price: the value of a commodity in money; the sum asked or paid for goods or a service: preț cu amănuntul “retail price”.^[10][1]
2. A payment or reward for work done; a tariff.^[10][3]
3. (figurative) Value, worth, importance: de mare preț “very valuable”.^[10][2]

Word family

• prețui
• prețuitor
• prețuială

Related words

• Latin pretium

Usage notes

The plural is prețuri; old texts also have prețure.^[3] Cu niciun preț means “on no account”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. preț
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 529
4. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 121
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. preț
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6746
8. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
9. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. preț
10. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 871
11. ^ Drăganu, Nicolae (1914), Două manuscripte vechi: Codicele Todorescu și Codicele Marțian, București: Socec (Academia Română, Studii și cercetări), p. 242
12. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro