malmultekosta

Five syllables to say cheap, and every one of them earns its place. Read it from the inside out: kosti is to cost, kosta is costing, multekosta is costing much - that is the word for expensive - and mal- flips it. Malmultekosta is therefore literally not-costing-much, which is what cheap means when you strip the attitude out of it.

And that neutrality is the point. English cheap has two meanings welded together: low in price, and shoddy. Malmultekosta carries only the first. Calling a wine malmultekosta says nothing whatever about whether it is any good; if you mean shoddy you must say so, with malbonkvalita (of poor quality), aĉa (nasty) or fuŝa (botched). Learners import the sneer from English and end up insulting a perfectly decent hotel.

Malkara is the everyday short alternative, built on kara - which means both dear-beloved and dear-expensive, exactly as English dear does - and in speech most people reach for it. Malmultekosta is the precise one, the one that cannot be misread as unloved, and it is what you will see in writing. Malmultekoste is the adverb, malmultekosteco the cheapness.