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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

purse.

A small bag for carrying money.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pɜːs/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/pəːs/British, Southern, Standard/pɚs/General-American/pøːs/New-Zealand, Wales

  1. A small bag for carrying money.

  2. A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)

    US

  3. A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.

  4. A specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.

    historical
Where this word comes from

From Middle English purs, from Old English purs (“purse”), partly from pusa (“wallet, bag, scrip”) and partly from burse (“pouch, bag”). Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (“bag, sack, scrip”), and is cognate with Old High German pfoso (“pouch, purse”), Low German pūse (“purse, bag”), Old Norse posi (“purse, bag”), Danish pose (“purse, bag”). Old English burse comes from Medieval Latin bursa (“leather bag”) (compare English bursar), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, wine-skin”). Compare also Old French borse (French bourse), Old Saxon bursa (“bag”), Old High German burissa (“wallet”).

verb/pɜːs/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/pəːs/British, Southern, Standard/pɚs/General-American/pøːs/New-Zealand, Wales

  1. To press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude.

    transitive

  2. To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles; to pucker; to knit.

  3. To put into a purse.

  4. To steal purses; to rob.

    intransitive · obsolete · rare
Where this word comes from

From Middle English purs, from Old English purs (“purse”), partly from pusa (“wallet, bag, scrip”) and partly from burse (“pouch, bag”). Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (“bag, sack, scrip”), and is cognate with Old High German pfoso (“pouch, purse”), Low German pūse (“purse, bag”), Old Norse posi (“purse, bag”), Danish pose (“purse, bag”). Old English burse comes from Medieval Latin bursa (“leather bag”) (compare English bursar), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, wine-skin”). Compare also Old French borse (French bourse), Old Saxon bursa (“bag”), Old High German burissa (“wallet”).

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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.