prea
Galician
Etymology
From Old Galician-PortugueseCategory:Galician terms inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese#PREACategory:Galician terms derived from Old Galician-Portuguese#PREA, from LatinCategory:Galician terms inherited from Latin#PREACategory:Galician terms derived from Latin#PREA praeda (“booty, prey”), from earlier praeheda, from prae + Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:Galician terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#PREA *gʰed- (“to hold”). Cognate with Portuguese preia, English prey.
Pronunciation
Noun
prea f (plural preas)Category:Galician lemmas#PREACategory:Galician nouns#PREACategory:Galician countable nouns#PREACategory:Galician entries with incorrect language header#PREACategory:Galician feminine nouns#PREACategory:Pages with entries#PREACategory:Pages with 4 entries#PREA
- 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.Category:Galician terms with quotations#PREA
- 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 hègrandeCategory:Galician terms with quotations#PREA
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,
- (regionalCategory:Regional Galician#PREA) 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 speakCategory:Galician terms with usage examples#PREA
Related terms
References
- 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
Etymology
Borrowed from Old Church SlavonicCategory:Romanian terms borrowed from Old Church Slavonic#PREACategory:Romanian terms derived from Old Church Slavonic#PREA прѣ- (prě-).[1][2]
Pronunciation
Adverb
preaCategory:Romanian lemmas#PREACategory:Romanian adverbs#PREACategory:Romanian entries with incorrect language header#PREACategory:Pages with entries#PREACategory:Pages with 4 entries#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 informalCategory:Romanian informal terms#PREA, modifying verbs) too much[usage note 1]
- (unstressed, informalCategory:Romanian informal terms#PREA, chiefly in the negativeCategory:Romanian negative polarity items#PREA, modifying adjectives or adverbs) too (to a high degree)
- nu prea curând ― not anytime soon (literally, “not too soon”)Category:Romanian terms with collocations#PREA
- Să fii concediat nu este prea plăcut.
- Being laid off isn’t too pleasant.
- (unstressed, informalCategory:Romanian informal terms#PREA, chiefly in the negativeCategory:Romanian negative polarity items#PREA, 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.”
- (archaicCategory:Romanian terms with archaic senses#PREA) 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 […]Category:Romanian terms with quotations#PREA
- 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 OlteniaCategory:Oltenian Romanian#PREA) synonym of cam (“approximately”)[3]
Usage notes
- ↑ 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
References
- ↑ The template Template:R:DEX does not use the parameter(s):
id=44781
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.Category:Pages using invalid parameters when calling Template:R:DEX#PREA“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, 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) (in Romanian), Bucharest: Cultura Națională, page 190
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpɾea/ [ˈpɾe.a]Category:Spanish 2-syllable words#PREACategory:Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation#PREA
- Rhymes: -eaCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/ea#PREACategory:Rhymes:Spanish/ea/2 syllables#PREA
- Syllabification: pre‧a
Etymology 1
Inherited from LatinCategory:Spanish terms inherited from Latin#PREACategory:Spanish terms derived from Latin#PREA praeda, from earlier praeheda, from prae- + Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:Spanish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#PREA *gʰed- (“to hold”).
Alternative forms
Noun
prea f (plural preas)Category:Spanish lemmas#PREACategory:Spanish nouns#PREACategory:Spanish countable nouns#PREACategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#PREACategory:Spanish feminine nouns#PREACategory:Pages with entries#PREACategory:Pages with 4 entries#PREA
- taking; something taken
Related terms
Etymology 2
Verb
preaCategory:Spanish non-lemma forms#PREACategory:Spanish verb forms#PREACategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#PREACategory:Pages with entries#PREACategory:Pages with 4 entries#PREA
- inflection of prear:
Further reading
- “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
Etymology
From EnglishCategory:Tok Pisin terms derived from English#PREA prayer.
Noun
preaCategory:Tok Pisin lemmas#PREACategory:Tok Pisin nouns#PREACategory:Tok Pisin entries with incorrect language header#PREACategory:Pages with entries#PREACategory:Pages with 4 entries#PREA