| 释义 |
premium|ˈpriːmɪəm|
Also 7–8 præmium. Pl. -iums, -ia.
[a. L. præmium booty, profit from booty, profit, advantage, reward, f. præ, pre- A. 1 + emĕre to buy, orig. to take.]
1. A reward given for some specific act or as an incentive; a prize.
1601A. Copley Answ. Let. Jesuited Gent. 107 Their martyrdomes being to them as a præmium for the one, and..a sufficient Piaculum for the other. 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. xxviii. (1627) 283 Those [scholars] who doe best, would be graced with some Præmium from them: as some little booke, or money. [Margin] Some Præmia giuen. 1661Blount Glossogr. (ed. 2), Premium..is used in Schools, for a reward given to that Schollar that says his Lesson, or performs his Exercise well. 1716B. Church Hist. Philip's War (1865) I. 152 The Captain with his Company..received their Praemium, which was Thirty Shillings per head, for the Enemies which they had killed or taken. 1765T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. I. ii. 305 He knew the premium set upon his head. 1770Small in J. P. Muirhead Life Jas. Watt xvi. (1858) 223 The French..offer large præmia for time-keepers. 1785W. Tooke in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 429 The præmiums annexed, as incitements to Philosophical industry. 1797Monthly Mag. III. 486/1 It was resolved, that a premium of twenty guineas should be paid to the owner who shall exhibit the best three-year-old bull. 1880Warren Book-plates xiv. 168 A premium of Trinity College, Dublin. 1898Daily News 9 Mar. 4/4 After all premiums had been awarded, and the winners had been paraded,..the hunter classes had their chance.
fig.1835Lytton Rienzi x. vi, Misplaced mercy would be but a premium to conspiracy. 1860R. A. Vaughan Mystics I. 208 Such an abandonment..as should be a premium on his indolence.
2. The amount agreed on, in an insurance policy, to be paid at one time or from time to time in consideration of a contract of insurance (formerly premio): see insurance 4, policy n.2 1.
[1622,1638: see premio.] 1661Blount Glossogr. (ed. 2), Premium... Among Merchants it is used for that sum of money..which the Ensured gives the Ensurer for ensuring the safe return of any Ship or Merchandize. 1681Lond. Gaz. No. 1668/4 The Insurers will oblige Themselves..to accept of a Surrender, and repay their Premium, only deducting a Proportion for the time Insured. 1766Entick London IV. 262 The conditions of insurance are 2s. per cent. premium. 1835Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. xxxiv. 480 The premium that might be demanded at Lloyd's. 1907Westm. Gaz. 16 Jan. 8/1 This seemed to him to sufficiently define ‘the premiums of the company’,..the periodical sums required to be paid in respect of policies issued by the company in order to maintain such policies against the company.
3. a. A sum additional to interest, price, wages, or other fixed remuneration; a bonus; a bounty on the production or exportation of goods. spec., a sum paid in addition to the rent on a leased property. † Formerly sometimes applied to interest on a loan.
1695C. Montagu in Cobbett Parl. Hist. Eng. (1809) V. 968 The supplies..being so much diminished..by the unequal change, and exorbitant Premiums, before they reached the camp. 1698Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) IV. 340 An account..what imprest money has been paid to Mr. Burton and Mr. Knight for premiums for advancing money, &c., since May 95. 1729N. Jersey Archives XI. 183 Any Person importing Masts into Great Britain, to be intituled to the Bounty or Praemium, must produce a Certificate. 1731Swift To Mr. Gay 69 With Int'rest, and a Præmium paid beside, The Master's pressing Wants must be supply'd. 1748H. Ellis Hudson's Bay 103 Besides the extraordinary Wages..given, Premiums were settled in Case of Success, proportionable to the Rank of all the Persons on board. 1766Blackstone Comm. II. xxx. 456 If no premium were allowed for the hire of money, few persons would care to lend it. 1859Geo. Eliot Let. 19 Feb. (1954) III. 14 There was a house after my own heart at Mortlake..but it turned out to have a premium affixed to the lease, which made it too expensive. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 649 A captain is..sure to get their passage money and a premium for them. 1924A. Christie Poirot Investigates iii. 71 ‘We've got a flat—at last!.. It's dirt cheap. Eighty pounds a year!’.. ‘Big premium, I suppose?’ 1966New Statesman 21 Jan. 71/2 If railwaymen work genuinely longer or more difficult hours, and get overtime or shift premia in compensation, this is fair enough. 1966Economist 29 Jan. 386/1 The case for higher night premia would be ‘examined’ in a later report, but he most definitely did not recommend them now. 1970M. Greener Penguin Dict. Commerce 263 Very often when property is leased, the lessee, in addition to paying a rent for an agreed period, pays a lump sum. This is known as a premium, or sometimes as ‘key money’, and was once intended to avoid taxation and disguise the true rent. 1974M. B. Brown Econ. of Imperialism viii. 177 Some foreign issues [of stocks] were certainly made more attractive because of the premiums at which they were issued.
b. Comm. (See quot. 1928.)
1928Funk's Stand. Dict. II. 1956/3 Premium,..any object offered free to those who purchase goods to a certain value, as a set of books given free as an inducement to subscribe to a magazine. 1930Lucas & Benson Psychol. for Advertisers xii. 204 $1,502,000,000 is spent annually on advertising. This is divided as follows: Newspapers..$690,000,000..Premiums, programs and directories..25,000,000. 1954R. J. Schwartz Dict. Business & Industry 392/1 Premium, something given free or at a nominal price to induce an actual sale or to promote interest in a product. 1963Sunday Times 17 Nov. 11/1 A rapidly-growing little specialist industry is growing round the ‘take-a-plastic-daffodil-madam’ school of retailing... A premium, in their jargon, can be anything given away or sold cheap to persuade people..to buy, stock, sample or re-order a product. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VIII. 191/1 Until the 1900s the most popular premiums were pictures and trade cards.., which were collected and exchanged by enthusiastic consumers whose collections became quite valuable.
c. Finance. The excess of the forward price of a currency or a commodity over the spot price.
1933B. Ellinger This Money Business x. 101 In normal times the difference between ‘spot’—i.e. the rate for immediate delivery—and ‘forward’ rates depends on the rates of interest in the respective countries, but in abnormal times merchants may find a growing premium or discount on the forward rate over the spot rate. 1957[see forward a. 4]. 1971R. F. Pither Man. Foreign Exchange (ed. 7) x. 138 Forward rates of exchange are quoted as a ‘margin’ or ‘difference’ against the ‘0pot’ rate of the currency concerned, or as a ‘premium’ or ‘discount’ on the ‘spot’ rate, or they may be quoted ‘outright’. 1978R. G. F. Coninx Foreign Exchange Today viii. 111 Forward margins are referred to as premiums or discounts. Ibid. 113 With indirect quotations, premiums indicate that the home currency enjoys higher interest rates than the quoted currency.
4. A fee paid for instruction in a profession or trade.
1765Blackstone Comm. I. xiv. 426 Sometimes very large sums are given with them [apprentices], as a premium for such their instruction. 1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr., The Theatre 86 He would have bound him to some shop in town, But with a premium he could not come down. 1878Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. vii. 58 To learn a profession, like that of an architect or engineer, it is requisite to pay a high premium, and become a pupil in a good office.
5. The charge made for changing one currency into another of greater value; agio; hence, the excess value of one currency over another.
1717Newton in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 425 At home they make their payments in gold, but will not pay in silver without a premium. 1757Jos. Harris Coins 121 A country which oweth a ballance to another must pay a præmium upon all the bills.
6. a. at a premium: at more than the nominal or usual value; above par; fig. in high esteem. (Opp. to at a discount.)
1828Harrovian 191 John Lyon put their charms at a premium. 1833H. Martineau Vanderput & S. iii. 51 It answers our purpose better to sell our claim for this money at a premium. 1856Reade Never too late xxv, Suicide is at a premium here. Ibid. lxxxv, Servants are at a great premium, masters at a discount, in the colony. 1861[see discount n. 4]. 1863Fawcett Pol. Econ. iii. ix. (1876) 421 When the exchange is unfavourable, and bills at a premium, this premium..varies from day to day. 1882Bithell Counting-ho. Dict. (1893) 237 If {pstlg}100 of Russian Stock is issued at the price of {pstlg}94, then, if the quoted price on the Stock Exchange is 95½, it is said to be at 1½ premium. 1906Galsworthy Man of Property xxiv. 295 When Mrs. MacAnder dined at Timothy's, the conversation..took that wider, man-of-the-world tone current among Forsytes at large, and this, no doubt, was what put her at a premium there. 1932Time 28 Mar. 30/2 The news put Philharmonic subscriptions back at a premium last week. 1974Times 14 Mar. 11/2 Sadly, space is at a premium in most department stores.
b. fig. to put (or place) a premium on (something) and varr., to put a high value on something esp. as an inducement or incentive.
1907G. B. Shaw John Bull's Other Island p. xvi, In short, our circumstances place a premium on political ability whilst the circumstances of England discount it; and the quality of the supply naturally follows the demand. 1911― Getting Married 142 Our democratic and matrimonial institutions..put a premium on want of self-respect in certain very important matters. 1933J. W. N. Sullivan Limitations of Sci. iv. 132 The struggle for existence takes the place of the human breeder. Nature sets a premium upon certain varieties as compared with others. 1939A. Huxley After Many a Summer i. xi. 147 He's been greedy and domineering, among other reasons, because the present system puts a premium on those qualities. 1959[see Pearl Harbour].
7. a. attrib. and Comb., as premium (= prize) bull, premium tulip, etc.; (sense 3 b) premium promotion, premium selling; premium-hunter, premium-winner; premium-fed, premium-paying adjs.: premium apprentice, an apprentice who has paid a premium for instruction in his intended trade; premium bonus system, premium system, a system by which a bonus is paid in addition to wages in proportion to the amount or value of work done.
1855J. R. Leifchild Cornwall Mines 249 The mine rose in value to the *premium amount of {pstlg}24,000 in a few days.
1927F. H. Shaw Knocking Around vi. 54 My greatest efforts of all should be expended in an endeavour to ameliorate the lot of that hard-lying ocean Ishmael, the *premium apprentice. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Dec. 36/2 When I left school,..I put in a happy period as a premium apprentice at the Sentinel Waggon Works at Shrewsbury.
1902Daily Chron. 17 Oct. 3/3 The *premium bonus system, as provisionally agreed to, seems to Mr. Webb to be an admirable expedient.
1905Ibid. 30 Jan. 3/7 Parents and guardians often pay a premium to a Canadian farmer. But the best farmers will not take a *premium boy.
1895Daily News 4 Feb. 5/7 What an incubus the pampered and *premium-fed merchant navy is upon national finances.
1899Westm. Gaz. 8 June 8/1 A sign that many *premium-hunters will be left out in the cold.
1962S. Strand Marketing Dict. 562 *Premium promotion, the use of premiums (inexpensive gifts) in the promotion of the sale of products or services. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VIII. 191/2 Premium promotion, an advertisement, often part of the product package, that induces prospective purchasers to buy the product by offering a free gift or a reduced price.
1966Lebende Sprachen XI. 109/1 *Premium selling, offering an item with the purchase of another product, either free or for a nominal additional payment, as an inducement to buy the product.
1901Westm. Gaz. 5 Sept. 8/1 Brief descriptions were given of the working and general results of the *premium system.
1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xiii, ‘I am, sir’, said Mr. Tigg,..‘a *premium tulip, of a very different growth and cultivation’.
b. Passing into adj. Of a commodity, etc., esp. petrol: superior in quality and therefore commanding a higher price; of a price: such as befits an article of superior quality; higher than usual. orig. U.S.
1928National Petroleum News 24 Oct. 115 (Advt.), This is our anti-knock gasoline, a premium motor fuel. 1931Economist 5 Sept. 422/2 The profit to the garage on the sale of petrol..is now 2d a gallon on national ‘commercial’ grades and 2½d on national ‘premium’ grades. 1945H. S. Bell Amer. Petroleum Refining (ed. 3) xviii. 278 The refiner cannot approach the desired knock rating of 80 for premium motor fuels..by simple skimming and thermal cracking except by a material reduction of the end point of his product. 1961I. L. Horowitz Philos., Sci. & Sociol. of Knowledge v. 54 A world which pays a premium price for technological manipulation. 1965New Statesman 23 Apr. 634/1 There were the garages selling the well-known, branded petrols, each in three main grades—Super, Premium and Regular. 1970Daily Tel. 30 Jan. 19/1 All supersonic travellers would fly ‘premium class’ at a slightly lower rate than that paid at present by first-class passengers, but with the same comfort. 1977Listener 1 Dec. 708 Qube [sc. U.S. cable television] has ten ‘premium’ channels where you pay per programme. 1979Guardian 22 June 9/8 Trout will for some time still be a premium fish, selling at about {pstlg}1 each.
Hence premiumed |ˈpriːmɪəmd| a., that has gained a premium or prize; that has paid a premium; ˈpremiumless a., without (the means of paying) a premium.
1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 305 A breed of these premium'd bulls. 1796Coleridge Lett., to T. Poole (1895) 189 He was too young and premiumless, and no one would take him. 1927Daily Express 5 July 5/5 The trade may also be entered as a premiumed apprentice or as a beginner at a nominal wage. |