Underquote

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. To offer a price for goods or services that is lower than what others are asking for the same thing
2. To submit a bid or quotation that is cheaper than rival offers for comparable work or products
3. To propose a cost that falls below the prices quoted by competing suppliers or service providers

Etymology: "Underquote" is a plain compound: the prefix "under-" joined to "quote." In this case the prefix does its usual job of meaning "below" or "less than," so to underquote is to quote a price lower than a rival or a competitor, or lower than the going rate. The word belongs to the commercial world of bids and tenders, where a seller names a figure beneath what others are offering. The second half, "quote," comes from Medieval Latin "quotare," meaning to mark chapters or numbered divisions in a text with numbers, a sense that later extended to citing a passage and then to naming a price. That price sense, which gave the compound its footing, is what "underquote" builds on, so the word essentially says "to name a price under."