Price

Price, the equivalent in money for which a commodity is sold or purchased, the value of anything expressed in terms of a medium of exchange (see Value and Wealth). The word is a doublet of "praise," commendation, eulogy, Lat. laus, and "prize," a reward of victory, the ultimate source of which is the Lat. pretium; the Aryan root par-, to buy, is seen in Skr. pa p a, wages, reward, Gr. 7rcirpleo-icav, to sell, &c. The 0. Fr. pris, mod. prix, was taken from a Late Latin form precium, and had the various meanings of the English, "price," "prize," and "praise"; it was adapted in English as pris or prise and was gradually differentiated in form for the different meanings; thus "praise" was developed from an earlier verbal form preise or preyse in the 15th century; the original meaning survives in "appraise," to set a value to anything, cf. the current meaning of "to prize," to value highly. "Prize," reward, does not appear as a separate form till the 16th century. In "prize-fight," a boxing contest for money, the idea of reward seems clear, but the word appears earlier than the form "prize" in this sense and means a contest or match, and may be a different word altogether; the New English Dictionary compares the Greek use of aoxov, literally reward, hence contest. "Prize" in the sense of that which is captured in war, especially at sea, is a distinct word. It comes through the Fr. prise, early Romanic presa for prensa, from Lat. praehendere, to seize, capture. For the international law on the subject see Prize.