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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

prim.

Of a person, their manner or appearance: Formal and precise; stiffly decorous.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/pɹɪm/[pʰɹ̠̊ɪm]
  1. Of a person, their manner or appearance: Formal and precise; stiffly decorous.

  2. Prudish; straight-laced.

    broadly
  3. Of things: Neat; trim.

    prim regularity
Where this word comes from

Of uncertain origin. In the verb sense, first appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's A Fool's Preferment in the year 1688. In the noun sense, first appeared in A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew in the year 1699, meaning "prig." Now obsolete. In the adjective sense, first appeared in Sir Richard Steele's The Funeral in the year 1702, meaning "consciously or affectedly strict or precise; stiffly formal and respectable." Oxford English Dictionary proposed a relation with primp and prink. Chiefly Scottish and U.S.

verb/pɹɪm/[pʰɹ̠̊ɪm]
  1. To make one's expression prim.

    archaic · intransitive
  2. To give a prim or demure expression to (one's face, mouth, or (rare) lips).

    archaic · transitive
  3. To dress (one) up affectedly or demurely.

    archaic · transitive
Where this word comes from

Of uncertain origin. In the verb sense, first appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's A Fool's Preferment in the year 1688. In the noun sense, first appeared in A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew in the year 1699, meaning "prig." Now obsolete. In the adjective sense, first appeared in Sir Richard Steele's The Funeral in the year 1702, meaning "consciously or affectedly strict or precise; stiffly formal and respectable." Oxford English Dictionary proposed a relation with primp and prink. Chiefly Scottish and U.S.

noun/pɹɪm/[pʰɹ̠̊ɪm]
  1. A prim person.

    archaic · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Of uncertain origin. In the verb sense, first appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's A Fool's Preferment in the year 1688. In the noun sense, first appeared in A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew in the year 1699, meaning "prig." Now obsolete. In the adjective sense, first appeared in Sir Richard Steele's The Funeral in the year 1702, meaning "consciously or affectedly strict or precise; stiffly formal and respectable." Oxford English Dictionary proposed a relation with primp and prink. Chiefly Scottish and U.S.

noun/pɹɪm/[pʰɹ̠̊ɪm]
  1. privet

    archaic
Where this word comes from

Unknown; see privet.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.