Breakdown of Мы приценивались перед торгом, а продавец уступил.
Questions & Answers about Мы приценивались перед торгом, а продавец уступил.
It comes from прицениваться. In this context, it means something like checking the price, sounding out the price, or getting a sense of how much something costs before deciding what to do next.
It is not exactly the same as торговаться.
- прицениваться = find out / estimate the price first
- торговаться = actually bargain or haggle over it
So the idea is that мы приценивались means we were feeling out the price before the real bargaining started.
The -сь is the short form of -ся, the reflexive ending.
In Russian, reflexive verbs are not always literally reflexive in the English sense. Sometimes -ся is just part of the normal dictionary form of the verb and gives it a special meaning.
So прицениваться is simply the standard verb for checking out the price / sizing up the price. You should learn it as a whole word, not try to translate it piece by piece as if it meant to price oneself.