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. prctium; the Aryan root par-, to buy, is seen in Skr. pana, wages, reward, Gr. irnrpao-Ktiv, to sell, etc. The O. 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 prcise or preyse in the isth 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 ad\ov, 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.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
