different between prize vs stake

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English stake, from Old English staca (“pin, tack, stake”), from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *stog-, *steg- (“stake”). Cognate with Scots stak, staik, Saterland Frisian Stak, West Frisian staak, Dutch staak, Low German Stake, Norwegian stake.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ste?k/
• Homophone: steak
• Rhymes: -e?k

Noun

stake (plural stakes)

1. A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay.

   We have surveyor's stakes at all four corners of this field, to mark exactly its borders.
2. (croquet) A piece of wood driven in the ground, placed in the middle of the court, that is used as the finishing point after scoring 12 hoops in croquet.
3. A stick inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, flat car, flatbed trailer, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off.
4. (with definite article) The piece of timber to which a person condemned to death was affixed to be burned.

   Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake.
5. A share or interest in a business or a given situation.
6. That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.
7. A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, as used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching hole in or cutting a work piece, or for specific forming techniques etc.
8. (Mormonism) A territorial division comprising all the Mormons (typically several thousand) in a geographical area.
   • 1910, Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge

     Every city, or stake, including a chief town and surrounding towns, has its president, with two counselors; and this president has a high council of chosen men.

Synonyms

• (croquet): peg

Derived terms

• Stakeford
• stakeholder

Related terms

• burn at the stake
• pull up stakes
• stake of Zion
• table stakes
• (wager or pledge): at stake

Translations

Verb

stake (third-person singular simple present stakes, present participle staking, simple past and past participle staked)

1. (transitive) To fasten, support, defend, or delineate with stakes.

2. (transitive) To pierce or wound with a stake.
   • 2014, A. J. Gallant, Dracula: Hearts of Stone

     “You ladies happen to notice what happened to this vampire? This just happened. Did you see who staked him?”

3. (transitive) To put at risk upon success in competition, or upon a future contingency.
4. (transitive) To provide another with money in order to engage in an activity as betting or a business venture.

Synonyms

• (put at risk): bet, hazard, wager

Derived terms

• stake a claim
• stake out

Translations

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “stake”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Keast, Keats, Skate, kates, ketas, skate, steak, takes, teaks

Dutch

Verb

stake

1. (archaic) singular past subjunctive of steken
2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of staken

Anagrams

• kaste

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English staca, from Proto-Germanic *stakô.

Alternative forms

• staak, stak, stack

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sta?k(?)/

Noun

stake (plural stakes)

1. A stake; wood put in the ground as a marker or support.
2. A fencepost; a stake used in concert to form a barrier.
3. A branch or bough; an extension of a tree.
4. A stave or stick; a cut (and often shaped) piece of wood.
5. (rare) A prickle or splint.
6. (rare) A metal bar or pole.
7. (rare) A stabbing feeling.

Derived terms

• staken
• stakyng

Descendants

• English: stake
• Scots: stak, staik

References

• “st?ke, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-12-02.

Etymology 2

From the noun.

Verb

stake

1. Alternative form of staken

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish staki, from Old Norse staki, from Proto-Germanic *stakô, from Proto-Indo-European *steg-.

Noun

stake c

1. (short for ljusstake) candlestick
2. (vulgar) erection
3. (vulgar) erect penis
4. (slang, uncountable) balls; courage, assertiveness

Declension

Related terms

• ljusstake
• adventsljusstake

Anagrams

• steka