Word Confusion: Pride versus Prize

Posted December 6, 2018 by kddidit in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
18 Dec 2022

I can sort of understand how someone would confuse pride with prize. Pride and prize both appreciate excellence and a trophy or ribbon can be the same as an ornament.

Yet, pride is more personal, lions aside. Pride is what one takes in oneself or in one’s possessions. Prize on the other hand is usually a thing or reward, as well as a force to move something.

Consider the car was his pride and joy. It is possible that someone thought the car was his prize, that having this car made the owner more complete, gave them status or leverage. Or that instead of this bull being the pride of the herd, that the writer thought he was the prize of the herd. I can see that. That the bull was so outstanding, he must be an animal of great value rather than the bull being an amazing accomplishment.

It all depends on how you look at it.

And consider checking out the post on “Prise vs Prize vs Pries“.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Pride	Prize
Bullfighters’ Pride by memyselfaneye is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay.	After All Those Years… by Sheila Sund is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. — . . . someone won quite a few prize ribbons.
Part of Grammar:
Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: prides Gerund: priding Third person present verb: prides Past tense or past participle: prided Present participle: priding	Adjective ¹; Noun ¹, ², and ³; Verb, transitive ³, ⁴ Plural for the noun: prizes Gerund: prizing Third person present verb: prizes Past tense or past participle: prized Present participle: prizing Variant spelling: prise
Noun: A feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired A person or thing that is the object or source of a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction [Literary] The best state or condition of something The prime Mettle in a horse Consciousness of one’s own dignity The quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s importance A group of lions forming a social unit The best of a group, class, society, etc. Sexual desire, especially in a female animal Ornament or adornment Verb, intransitive: To glory or revel (in) Verb, transitive: [Usually followed by on or upon] To indulge or plume (oneself) in a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction	Adjective: [Attrib., especially of something entered in a competition] Having been or likely to be awarded a reward ¹ Denoting something for which something of great value is awarded Excellent of its kind Outstanding Complete Utter Noun: A thing given as a reward to the winner of a competition or race or in recognition of another outstanding achievement ¹ A thing, especially an amount of money or a valuable object, that can be won in a lottery or other game of chance Something of great value that is worth struggling to achieve [Chiefly historical] An enemy ship captured during the course of naval warfare ² Leverage ³ [Chiefly Southern US] Something used as a lever or for prying Verb, transitive: Use force in order to move, move apart, or open something ³ Value extremely highly ⁴
Examples:
Noun: The team was bursting with pride after recording a sensational victory. She’s a woman who takes great pride in her appearance. His achievements were the pride of the family. The swimming pool is the pride of the community. That horse was in the pride of youth. He swallowed his pride and asked for help. You are indulging in the sin of pride, young man. We saw a huge pride of lions south of here. The certificate has pride of place on my wall. “It is impossible you should see this, / Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, / As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross / As ignorance made drunk” (Shakespeare). That car was his pride and joy. This bull is the pride of the herd. Verb, intransitive: Such, father, is not (now) my theme — I will not madly deem that power Of Earth may shrive me of the sin Unearthly pride hath revell’d in — I have no time to dote or dream: You call it hope — that fire of fire” (Poe). Verb, transitive: She prides herself on her tennis. Suarez prides himself on being able to organize his own life.	Adjective: Schatzi is my prize shih tzu. First prize was a chocolate cake. That Sherman is a prize example of how badly a man can fail. You are a prize idiot. Some blight ruined Angie’s prize azaleas. Her most prized possession was that doll. Noun: What’s the prize for winning the spelling bee? Didja hear about Janie winning the grand prize? Mama said we’d get a prize if we kept quiet. Why don’t you own a prize bar, honey? The prize will be one in the eye for that Maude Perkins. Captain Aubrey and his crew were delighted with their new prizes. Verb, transitive: The linden tea was prized for its fragrance. He prized open that window with nary a squeak.
Derivatives:
Adjective: prideful, prideless, unprideful Adverb: pridefully, pridelessly, unpridefully Noun: pridefulness	Adjective: prize-winning Noun: prizefight, prizefighter, prizefighting, prizewinner
History of the Word:
Late Old English prȳde meaning excessive self-esteem, is a variant of prȳtu, prȳte, which is from prūd (see proud).	In Middle English the noun is a variant of price; the verb (originally in the sense estimate the value of) is from the Old French pris-, stem of preisier meaning to praise, appraise. Late Middle English from the Old French prise meaning taking, booty, from prendre meaning take. Late 16th century from dialect prise meaning lever, from the Old French prise meaning grasp, taking hold. From the Old French preisier meaning to praise.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

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