Answer: The differences between pried/prised/prized/apprised/appraised

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

There is nothing like a list of words that look and sound similar to confuse the heck out of us, so let's try and work out what's what with today's topic. Arthur Conan Doyle's characters, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, will assist.

Our list of words consists of verbs in the past tense which follow the usual regular rules of conjugation. Our definitions come courtesy of my New Zealand Oxford Dictionary.

Pry has two meanings, one of which is shared between both UK and US English users. The first meaning is:

inquire impertinently (into a person's private affairs etc);
look or peer inquisitively.

This word comes to us via Middle English prie.

Holmes searched the room with great energy and pried into every nook and cranny.

While my friend's observations could be embarrassing, I never felt that he pried. His discoveries arose quite naturally from his abounding native wit.

The second usage of pry shades into the usage of prise, which has the following definition and origin:

force open or out by leverage;
move or remove with difficulty;

There's also a noun usage of the word meaning leverage or purchase, and all these variations come to English via Middle English and Old French prise, 'levering instrument'.

To add extra confusion, prized is also acknowledged as an alternative spelling of prised.

We prised the trap door open, only to discover to our horror the body of Brunton upon the floor of the recess below.

Despite his malaise, Holmes was stubbornly attached to London and it was with great difficulty that I prised him from the refuge of Baker Street to attempt a cure in the bracing sea air of Cornwall.

Next is prize - a word that we're familiar with as a noun. As a verb, its definition is:

value highly.

This word as both verb and noun comes to English via the Old French pris meaning praise.

The above meaning and derivation assumes that we're not talking about pirate ships and naval battles and the taking of ships as booty. If we are, then that word and meaning is believed to derive from the Old French prise a part of prendre going back to a Latin word meaning 'seize'.

Any doubts I might have had as to whether Holmes prized my friendship were quite obliterated by his distress at the wound I suffered at Winter's hands.

Apprise means to inform, and comes ultimately from a form of the French apprendre, meaning 'learn' or 'teach'.

Holmes's great intelligence and acuity apprised him of many facts beyond the observation of more ordinary men.

Lastly we have appraise:

estimate the value or quality of something
set a price on, value (esp. of an official valuer)
evaluate the performance (of an employee) formally.

My friend rightfully appraised his capacities as well above the common herd, and valued a worthy opponent all the more because of that.

By the time I had worked all this post out, my head was going round and round like Watson's when faced with a particularly convoluted piece of reasoning from Holmes. I'll hope that I've pried into my dictionary to good effect and prised some useful fannish examples out of my brain. My fellow grammarians appraised my post before its appearance here and apprised me of errors. And I can only hope that my family prized my ability to cook dinner at the same time as I wrote this (but I doubt it).

Comments

[china_shop]

My fellow grammarians appraised my post before its appearance here and apprised me of errors.

Hee! That's particularly pleasing.

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly. :-)