prawn

English

Prawns

Etymology 1

First attested early 1400s as various Middle English forms prayne, prane, praune, and prawne, which present no clear cognates in languages other than English. The forms suggest a hypothetical Old English form containing *æg, evolving into Middle English *ay, but it is unclear if the word is of Germanic origin or loaned from a substrate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɔːn/
• IPA^(key): /pɹoːn/
• IPA^(key): /pɹɒːn/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːn

Noun

prawn (countable and uncountable, plural prawn or prawns)

1. A shrimp of the suborder Dendrobranchiata.
2. (Commonwealth) A large shrimp
3. (slang) A woman with a very toned body, but an unattractive face.

   She's a prawn!

4. (Australia) A fool, an idiot.

Synonyms

• (woman): butterface, tip drill

Derived terms

• come the raw prawn
• king prawn

Translations

large shrimp

• Afrikaans: garnaal
• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: جَمْبَرِي m (jambarī), رُوبِيَان m (rūbiyān)

  Hijazi Arabic: قَمْبَري m (gambari)

• Armenian: մանր ծովախեցգետին (manr covaxecʻgetin)
• Assamese: নিছলা মাছ (nisola mas), মিছা মাছ (misa mas)
• Azerbaijani: karides (az), krevet (az)
• Belarusian: крэве́тка f (krevjétka)
• Bengali: চিংড়ি (cinri)
• Bulgarian: скари́да (bg) f (skarída)
• Burmese: မျှင် (my) (hmyang), ပုစွန် (my) (pu.cwan) (general term for prawn, shrimp, crab, lobster, scampi, etc.)
• Cebuano: pansat
• Chechen: креветка (krevetka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蝦／虾 (zh), 虾 (zh) (xiā), 明蝦／明虾 (zh) (míngxiā), 明虾 (zh) (míngxiā), 對蝦／对虾 (zh) (duìxiā), 对虾 (zh) (duìxiā)

• Czech: kreveta (cs) f
• Danish: reje (da) c
• Dutch: garnaal (nl) m, scampi (nl)
• Erzya: креветка (kŕevetka)
• Estonian: krevett, garneel
• Finnish: (iso) katkarapu, jättikatkarapu
• French: crevette (fr) f
• Galician: gamba (gl) f
• Georgian: კრევეტი (ḳreveṭi)
• German: Garnele (de) f
• Greek: γαρίδα (el) f (garída)

  Ancient:

• Hebrew: חֲסִילוֹנִים
• Hindi: झींगा m (jhīṅgā)
• Hungarian: garnéla (hu)
• Icelandic: rækja (is) f
• Indonesian: udang (id)
• Irish: cloicheán m
• Italian: gambero (it) m
• Japanese: エビ (ja) (ebi), 海老 (ja) (えび, ebi)
• Kazakh: асшаян (asşaän), креветка (krevetka)
• Khmer: ព្រោន (km) (proon), បង្គា (km) (bɑngkiə)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 새우 (ko) (sae'u)
• Kyrgyz: креветка (krevetka)
• Lao: ກຸ້ງ (lo) (kung)
• Latvian: krevete f, garnele f
• Lithuanian: krevetė f
• Macedonian: скамп m (skamp), шкамп m (škamp)
• Malay: udang
• Nootka: łiłimakƛi
• Norman: grosse chèrvette f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: reke (no) m or f

• Persian: میگو (fa) (meygu)
• Polish: krewetka (pl) f
• Portuguese: camarão (pt) m, pitu (pt) m
• Romanian: crevetă (ro) f
• Russian: креве́тка (ru) f (krevétka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: шкамп m, рачић m, kozica (sh) f

  Roman: škamp (sh) m, račić (sh) m, козица f

• Slovak: kreveta f
• Slovene: kozica f, rakec m
• Spanish: gamba (es) f, camarón (es) m
• Swahili: uduvi
• Swedish: räka (sv) c
• Tagalog: sugpo
• Tajik: креветка (krevetka)
• Tamil: இறால் (ta) (iṟāl)
• Tatar: креветка (krewetka)
• Thai: กุ้ง (th) (gûng)
• Tok Pisin: see kindam
• Turkish: karides (tr)
• Turkmen: krewetka
• Ukrainian: креве́тка f (krevétka)
• Urdu: جھینگا m (jhīngā)
• Uyghur: قىسقۇچپاقا (qisquchpaqa)
• Uzbek: krevetka, mayda qisqichbaqa, qisqichbaqa (uz)
• Vietnamese: tôm (vi)
• Welsh: corgimwch (cy) m
• Yiddish: פּראָן (pron)

Verb

prawn (third-person singular simple present prawns, present participle prawning, simple past and past participle prawned)

1. (intransitive) To fish for prawns.

Etymology 2

Noun

prawn (plural prawns)

1. Alternative form of porn

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• Århammar, Nils (1986): Aspects of Language: Geolinguistics