prize

Etymology 1

From Middle English prise, from Old French prise (“a taking, capture, a seizure, a thing seized, a prize, booty, also hold, purchase”), past participle of prendre (“to take, to capture”), from Latin prēndere (“to take, seize”); see prehend. Compare prison, apprise, comprise, enterprise, purprise, reprisal, surprise, etc.

noun

1. That which is taken from another; something captured; a thing seized by force, stratagem, or superior power.
2. (military, nautical) Anything captured by a belligerent using the rights of war; especially, property captured at sea in virtue of the rights of war, as a vessel.
3. An honour or reward striven for in a competitive contest; anything offered to be competed for, or as an inducement to, or reward of, effort.
4. That which may be won by chance, as in a lottery.
   Cecil Rhodes […] was never tired of impressing upon one that the fact of being an Englishman was “the greatest prize in the lottery of life,” and that it was that thought which always sustained him when he was troubled. 1928, Weston Jarvis, Jottings from an Active Life, London: Heath Cranton, page 256
5. Anything worth striving for; a valuable possession held or in prospect.
6. (obsolete) A contest for a reward; competition.
7. A lever; a pry; also, the hold of a lever.

Etymology 2

From Middle English prysen, borrowed from Old French priser (“to set a price or value on, esteem, value”), from pris (“price”), from Latin pretium (“price, value”), whence price; see also praise, a doublet. Compare appraise, apprize.

verb

1. To consider highly valuable; to esteem.
   ‘[…] An old broken cup has no value. No one prizes it.’ ‘I prize it. It’s my museum, not yours.’ 2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 20, in The Childhood of Jesus, London: Harvill Secker, page 167
2. (obsolete) To set or estimate the value of; to appraise; to price; to rate.
3. To move with a lever; to force up or open; to prise or pry.
   ‘Find some other black boxes to prize open.’ 2021, Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun, Faber & Faber Limited, page 298
4. (obsolete) To compete in a prizefight.

Etymology 3

adj

1. Having won a prize; award-winning.
   a prize vegetable
2. First-rate; exceptional.
   He was a prize fool.

Etymology 4

Alternative forms.

noun

1. Obsolete form of price.
   My prizes – for a head is thirty five Guineas – As far as the Knees seventy – and for a whole-length one hundred and fifty. 1777, Joshua Reynolds, edited by John Ingamells and John Edgcumbe, The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale, published 2000, page 69