proot

English

WOTD – 27 April 2016

A man on a donkey in Nagorno-Karabakh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹuːt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -uːt

Etymology 1

Uncertain; compare the earlier proo.

Interjection

proot

1. A command to a donkey or mule to move faster.
   • 1879 June, Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, London: C. Kegan Paul & Company, →OCLC, page 18:

     [He] taught me the true cry or masonic word of donkey-drivers, ‘Proot!’

   • 1917, Charles S. Brooks, There's Pippins and Cheese to Come, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, →OCLC, page 38:

     The window is handed in [to a wicker carriage]. Her feet are wound around with comforters against a draft... Her ample bag of knitting is safe aboard... Proot! The donkey starts.

Etymology 2

Mutated clipping of protogen.

Noun

proot (plural proots)

1. (furry fandom, endearing, informal) A protogen.

   Synonym: proto

Hunsrik

Noun

proot n (Wiesemann spelling)

1. alternative spelling of Brod