different between possession vs prize

English

Etymology

From Latin possessi?, possessi?nis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??z???n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

possession (countable and uncountable, plural possessions)

1. Control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
2. Something that is owned.

   The car quickly became his most prized possession.

   I would gladly give all of my worldly possessions just to be able to do that.

3. Ownership; taking, holding, keeping something as one's own.

   The car is in my possession.

   I'm in possession of the car.

4. A territory under the rule of another country.

   Réunion is the largest of France's overseas possessions.

5. The condition or affliction of being possessed by a demon or other supernatural entity.

   Back then, people with psychiatric disorders were sometimes thought to be victims of demonic possession.
6. The condition of being under the control of strong emotion or madness.
7. (sports) Control of the ball; the opportunity to be on the offensive.

   The scoreboard shows a little football symbol next to the name of the team that has possession.
8. (Australian rules football) A disposal of the ball during a game, i.e. a kick or a handball.
   • 2019 In the mix: Who's pushing for selection for round eight? Australian Football League, 7 May 2019. Accessed 7 May 2019.

     Defender Colin O'Riordan had 41 possessions in the NEAFL last week to continue his outstanding form, while Ryan Clarke had 47 in the Swans' big loss to Brisbane.

9. (linguistics) A syntactic relationship between two nouns or nominals that may be used to indicate ownership.

   Some languages distinguish between a construction like 'my car', which shows alienable possession — the car could become someone else's — and one like 'my foot', which has inalienable possession — my foot will always be mine.

Usage notes

• One who possesses is often said to have possession (of), hold possession (of), or be in possession (of).
• One who acquires is often said to take possession (of), gain possession (of), or come into possession (of).

Synonyms

• ight (obsolete)
• (taking, holding, keeping something as one's own): owndom, retention
• See also Thesaurus:property

Antonyms

• (taking, holding, keeping something as one's own): absence

Hyponyms

• mortmain

Translations

Verb

possession (third-person singular simple present possessions, present participle possessioning, simple past and past participle possessioned)

1. (obsolete) To invest with property.

French

Etymology

From Latin possessionem (nominative of possessio)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?.s?.sj??/

Noun

possession f (plural possessions)

1. possession

Derived terms

• prendre possession

Further reading

• “possession” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

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 prendere (“to take, seize”); see prehend. Compare prison, apprise, comprise, enterprise, purprise, reprisal, surprise, etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?a?z/
• • Rhymes: -a?z
• Homophones: pries, prise

Noun

prize (plural prizes)

1. That which is taken from another; something captured; a thing seized by force, stratagem, or superior power.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 4, Canto 4, p. 54,^[1]

     […] wherefore he now begunne

     To challenge her anew, as his owne prize,

     Whom formerly he had in battell wonne,

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.
   • 1676, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe, London: Henry Herringman, Act 5, p. 73,^[2]

     I fought and conquer’d, yet have lost the prize.

4. That which may be won by chance, as in a lottery.
   • 1928, Weston Jarvis, Jottings from an Active Life, London: Heath Cranton, p. 256,^[3]

     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.

5. Anything worth striving for; a valuable possession held or in prospect.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Philippians 3.14,^[4]

     I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

6. (obsolete) A contest for a reward; competition.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 2,^[5]

     Like one of two contending in a prize,

     That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes […]

7. A lever; a pry; also, the hold of a lever.

   Synonym: prise

Usage notes

Do not confuse with price.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• prise
• price

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

prize (third-person singular simple present prizes, present participle prizing, simple past and past participle prized)

1. To consider highly valuable; to esteem.
   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III, Scene 1,^[6]

     […] I

     Beyond all limit of what else i’ the world

     Do love, prize, honour you.

   • 1676, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe, London: Henry Herringman, Act V, p. 83,^[7]

     I pris’d your Person, but your Crown disdain.

   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus, London: Harvill Secker, Chapter 20, p. 167,^[8]

     ‘ […] An old broken cup has no value. No one prizes it.’

     ‘I prize it. It’s my museum, not yours.’

2. (obsolete) To set or estimate the value of; to appraise; to price; to rate.
   • c. 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, Act III, Scene 2,^[9]

     […] no life,

     I prize it not a straw, but for mine honour,

   • 1611 King James Version of the Bible, Zechariah 11.13,^[10]

     […] a goodly price that I was prized at.

3. To move with a lever; to force up or open; to prise or pry.
4. (obsolete) To compete in a prizefight.

Derived terms

• foreprize
• outprize
• overprize
• prizable
• prizer
• underprize
• unprizable
• unprized

Translations

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

prize (not comparable)

1. Having won a prize; award-winning.

   a prize vegetable

2. first-rate; exceptional

   He was a prize fool.

Etymology 4

Alternative forms.

Noun

prize (plural prizes)

1. Obsolete form of price. [16th–19th c.]
   • 1777, Joshua Reynolds, in John Ingamells, John Edgcumbe (eds.), The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale 2000, p. 69:

     My prizes – for a head is thirty five Guineas – As far as the Knees seventy – and for a whole-length one hundred and fifty.

Further reading

• prize in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• prize in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• pizer, rezip