prissy
See also: Prissy
English
Etymology
1895, either an alteration of precise, or blend of prim + fussy; first attested in American writer Joel Chandler Harris.[1]
Pronunciation
Adjective
prissy (comparative prissier, superlative prissiest)
- excessively prim, proper, particular or fussy
- 1949, Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister:
- She was a small, neat, rather prissy-looking girl with primly smooth brown hair and rimless glasses […]
- 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club Cabin Boy[1]
- As Nathanial Mayweather, heir to the Mayweather Hotel fortune, Elliott doesn’t disdain the hoi polloi so much as he considers everyone, even the faculty and headmaster at the prissiest private school in existence, to be part of it.
- well-mannered, well-behaved
Derived terms
Translations
excessively prim, proper, particular or fussy
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well-behaved, well-mannered
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Noun
prissy (plural prissies)
- A person who is excessively prim, proper, particular or fussy.
References
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “prissy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.