pretium

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *pretjom, from Proto-Indo-European *pr-é-ti ~ *pr-ó-ti, from *per- (“in front”) perhaps in the meaning of “equivalence, recompense, compensation”. Compare Proto-Slavic *protivъ (“contrary, against”), Ancient Greek πρός (prós) from older προτί (protí, “in the direction of, towards, near”), Sanskrit प्रति (prati, “towards, near; against”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈprɛ.ti.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈprɛt.t͡si.um]

Noun

pretium n (genitive pretiī or pretī); second declension

1. worth, price, value, cost
   • c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca Minor, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium 1.1.2:

     Quem mihi dabis quī aliquod pretium temporī pōnat, quī diem aestimet, quī intellegat sē cotīdiē morī?

     What man can you show me who places any value on [his] time, who can reckon the worth of a day, who understands himself to be dying every day?

2. pay, hire, wage

   Synonyms: praemium, stīpendium, commodum, mercēs

3. reward

   Synonyms: praemium, datum, dōnum, oblātiō

4. ransom
5. bribe

   Synonym: praemium

6. punishment

   Synonyms: pūnītiō, sānctiō, poena, supplicium, exemplum, vindicātiō, vindicta, animadversus, malum, mercēs

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	pretium	pretia
genitive	pretiī pretī1	pretiōrum
dative	pretiō	pretiīs
accusative	pretium	pretia
ablative	pretiō	pretiīs
vocative	pretium	pretia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• appretiō
• manupretium
• pretiō
• pretiōsus

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Istro-Romanian: prets
  • Romanian: preț
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: prezzo, pregio
    • → Romansh: prezi
    • → Sardinian: préciu, preju, prégiu, présiu, prétziu
  • Sicilian: prezzu
    • → Maltese: prezz
• Insular Romance:
  • Old Sardinian: prethu
• North Italian:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Ligurian: prêxo
    • Lombard: pressi
    • Piedmontese: pressi
    • Romagnol: prëz
  • Friulian: presi
  • Istriot: priesio, prièso
  • Ladin: prisc, priesc
  • Romansh: predsch, pretsch
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Old Franco-Provençal: preiz
    • Franco-Provençal: pri
  • Old French: pris (see there for further descendants)
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Catalan: preu
    • → Aragonese: preu, pre
  • Old Occitan: pretz
    • Occitan: prètz
    • → Spanish: prez
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: preço, prez, preso
    • Galician: prezo
    • Portuguese: preço
  • Old Spanish: prieço
• Borrowings:
  • → Spanish: prezo, precio (semi-learned) (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “pretium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pretium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "pretium", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “pretium”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • it is worth while: operae pretium est (c. Inf.)
    
  • to fix a price for a thing: pretium alicui rei statuere, constituere (Att. 13. 22)
    
  • (ambiguous) to buy cheaply: parvo, vili pretio or bene emere
    
  • (ambiguous) to restore prisoners without ransom: captivos sine pretio reddere
    
• Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang (2008–), “*/ˈprɛti-u/”, in Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman, Nancy: Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française.