prea
Galician
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old Galician-Portuguese, from Latin praeda (“booty, prey”), from earlier praeheda, from prae + Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to hold”). Cognate with Portuguese preia, English prey.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]prea f (plural preas)
- body of a dead animal
- prey, game
- booty
- 1295, Ramón Lorenzo, editor, La traducción gallega de la Crónica General y de la Crónica de Castilla, Ourense: I.E.O.P.F., page 232:
- Et correullj a terra et astragoulla, et leuou ende muy grandes preas, et o al que ficaua queymoullo todo.
- He raided his land and wasted it, taking away many spoils, and what was left behind he put it in fire
- 1775, María Francisca Isla y Losada, Romance:
- Anque à prea non hègrande
si ca si, ò sacristan
disque à pestàna do figado
se lle hiba alegrando já.
Ô cont'hè, si enturra n'eso
Deus me libre das suas más,
que'anque eu non queira, na Coba
de chantarme heche capàz.- Although the booty is not large,
anyhow, the sacristan's
liver's eyes, reportedly,
were shinning bright.
The issue is, if he persists,
God save me from his hands,
that even if I don't want, in the grave
he is capable of thrusting me
- Although the booty is not large,
- (regional) delicious food
- (figurative) mean, stupid, or untidy person
- Déixao de molestar, non sexas prea!
- Stop harassing him, don't be mean!
- (figurative) drunkness
- Ten unha prea que non se lambe ― He's so drunk he can barely speak
Related terms
[edit]References
[edit]- Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “prea”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “prea”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “prea”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “prea”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN
Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic прѣ- (prě-).[1][2]
Pronunciation
[edit]Adverb
[edit]prea
- (stressed, modifying adjectives or adverbs) too (to an excessive degree)
- E încă prea devreme.
- It’s still too early.
- Sunt prea mulți oameni înăuntru.
- There are too many people inside.
- (stressed, now informal, modifying verbs) too much[usage note 1]
- Prea te grăbești!
- You’re rushing too much!
- (unstressed, informal, chiefly in the negative, modifying adjectives or adverbs) too (to a high degree)
- nu prea curând ― not anytime soon (literally, “not too soon”)
- Să fii concediat nu este prea plăcut.
- Being laid off isn’t too pleasant.
- (unstressed, informal, chiefly in the negative, modifying verbs) much, too much, really
- Situația nu se prea îmbunătățește.
- The situation isn’t improving much.
- Nu prea am văzut nimic.
- I didn’t really see anything.
- ―Te-ai descurcat? ―Nu prea.
- “Did you do well?” “Not really.”
- (archaic) most, very, highly[usage note 2]
- 1840 August 18, Gheorghe Bariț, editor, Gazeta de Transilvania, year 3, number 34, Brașov, page 136:
- О табакере кꙋ брілантꙋрі̆ преа богат ꙟмфрꙋмсъцатъ, ші о скрісоаре де ꙟнсꙋші̆ мѫна Сꙋлтанꙋлꙋі̆ […]
- O tabachere cu brilanturi prea bogat îmfrumsățată, și o scrisoare de însuși mâna Sultanului […]
- A snuffbox most richly decorated with diamonds, and a letter by the hand of the Sultan himself […]
- (North-East Oltenia) synonym of cam (“approximately”)[3]
Usage notes
[edit]- ^ In contemporary literary Romanian, prea behaves like English too in that it can only indirectly modify verbs through the construction prea mult (“too much”). It is now only in informal language that prea modifies a verb directly.
Thus, “I’m worrying too much” can be translated as:
- Mă îngrijorez prea mult (stylistically neutral, most common)
- Prea mă îngrijorez (now informal)
- Mă prea îngrijorez (more typical of old language)
- ^ Functionally identical and often conflated with the prefix prea-.
Derived terms
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ The template Template:R:DEX does not use the parameter(s):
id=44781
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.“prea”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026 - ^ Iorgu Iordan, Alexandru Graur, Ion Coteanu, editors (1978), Dicționarul Limbii Române[1], volume 8, part 5, Bucharest: Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania, page 1241
- ^ Ciaușanu, G. F.; Fira, G.; Popescu, C. M. (1928), Culegere de folclor din jud. Vâlcea și împrejurimi [Collection of folklore from Vâlcea County and its surroundings] (Din viața poporului român [From the life of the Romanian people]; 34)[2] (in Romanian), Bucharest: Cultura Națională, page 190
Spanish
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Inherited from Latin praeda, from earlier praeheda, from prae- + Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to hold”).
Alternative forms
[edit]Noun
[edit]prea f (plural preas)
- taking; something taken
Related terms
[edit]Etymology 2
[edit]Verb
[edit]prea
- inflection of prear:
Further reading
[edit]- “prea”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
Tok Pisin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]prea
Categories:
- Galician terms inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese
- Galician terms derived from Old Galician-Portuguese
- Galician terms inherited from Latin
- Galician terms derived from Latin
- Galician terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Galician terms with IPA pronunciation
- Galician lemmas
- Galician nouns
- Galician countable nouns
- Galician feminine nouns
- Galician terms with quotations
- Regional Galician
- Galician terms with usage examples
- Romanian terms borrowed from Old Church Slavonic
- Romanian terms derived from Old Church Slavonic
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Romanian/a
- Rhymes:Romanian/a/1 syllable
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian adverbs
- Romanian terms with usage examples
- Romanian informal terms
- Romanian negative polarity items
- Romanian terms with collocations
- Romanian terms with archaic senses
- Romanian terms with quotations
- Oltenian Romanian
- Spanish 2-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/ea
- Rhymes:Spanish/ea/2 syllables
- Spanish terms inherited from Latin
- Spanish terms derived from Latin
- Spanish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish feminine nouns
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms
- Tok Pisin terms derived from English
- Tok Pisin lemmas
- Tok Pisin nouns