Family name origins & meanings
- Spanish : nickname for a dark-haired or dark-skinned man, from Old Spanish prieto ‘dark’, ‘black’. The adjective derives from the verb apretar ‘to squeeze or compress’, a metathesized form of apetrar, Late Latin appectorare ‘to hold close to the chest’ (from pectus, genitive pectoris, ‘chest’). The use as a color term seems to have derived originally from its application to rain clouds and fog.