manupretium

Latin[edit]

From manus +‎ pretium.

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ma.nuːˈpre.ti.um/, [mänuːˈprɛt̪iʊ̃ˑ] or IPA^(key): /ma.nuˈpre.ti.um/, [mänʊˈprɛt̪iʊ̃ˑ]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ma.nuˈpret.t͡si.um/, [mänuˈprɛt̪ː͡s̪ium]
The length of the vowel in the second syllable is usually taken to be long. The word is attested only once in verse: it occurs in a line of iambic senarius in Plautus' Menaechmi which can scan with either length (if short, as – — u — | x || uu u uu | u — u —; if long, as — — u — | x || uu u — | uu — u —). Morphologically, a long vowel can be easily explained by taking the word as a univerbation of a phrase manū pretium, where the first element is the ablative singular form manū (compare manūmittō). However, manus also formed regular compounds with a short vowel, such as manufestus; the u here was the "sonus medius" that developed from short u before a labial consonant, as shown by the later variant manifestus, and manupretium likewise has a variant manipretium, which would not be expected to develop from a form with long ū.

manū̆pretium n (genitive manū̆pretiī or manū̆pretī); second declension

pay, wages
reward
workmanship
- c. 200 BCE, Plautus, Menaechmi 544, (iambic senarius):
  Fīa͞t. cĕdo‿a͞urum, ĕgŏ mănū̆prĕtĭu͞m dăbō.
  1912 translation by Henry Thomas Riley
  Be it so. Give me the gold; I'll find the price of the workmanship.

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

“manupretium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“manupretium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
manupretium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
manupretium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“manupretium” on page 1,075/3 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)