Settling disputes out of court

The ninth entry is o preço de reserva, and the English phrase that looks made for it belongs somewhere else entirely. « The reserve price » is a term of the saleroom: the figure below which the auctioneer may not knock a lot down, fixed before the sale, usually withheld from the bidders, and a lot that fails to reach it is « bought in » rather than sold. Nothing in it describes a negotiation. What this entry names is « the reservation price », the most a buyer would still pay or the least a seller would still take, the private limit each side brings into the room — which is exactly what the sentence here says, that each party has one and keeps it to itself. The two are not variants of a single term. « Reserve » and « reservation » have parted across English in just this way: one makes « a reservation » at a hotel but holds « reserves » of coal, has « reservations » about a plan but « reserves the right » to object. A negotiator handed « the reserve price » starts looking for an auctioneer.