prunelle

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French prunelle.

Noun

prunelle (plural prunelles)

1. A kind of small and very acid French plum, especially when stoned and dried, from Prunus spinosa.

   Synonyms: blackthorn, sloe

   • 1903, John Corbin, An American at Oxford‎^[1], Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company:

     There are oranges from Florida and Tangiers, dainty maiden blush apples from New England, figs and dates from the Levant, prunes and prunelles from Italy, candied apricots from France, and the superb English hothouse grapes, more luscious than Silenus ever crushed against his palate.

References

• “prunelle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

French

Etymology

From prune + -elle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁy.nɛl/

Noun

prunelle f (plural prunelles)

1. sloe (small, bitter, wild fruit of the blackthorn)
2. sloe gin
3. (anatomy) pupil; iris and pupil together; eye

   Synonym: (more common) pupille

   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎^[2], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères; republished as Eleanor Marx, transl., Madame Bovary, 1886:

     De grosses larmes s'arrêtaient au coin de ses paupières à demi closes, qui laissaient voir entre les cils deux prunelles pâles, enfoncées; le sparadrap, collé sur sa joue, en tirait obliquement la peau tendue.

     Big tears lay in the corner of the halfclosed eyelids, through whose lashes one could see two pale sunken pupils; the plaster stuck on her cheek drew the skin obliquely.

   • 1897, Anatole France, L'Orme du mail:

     M. Lacarelle relevait ses longues moustaches gauloises et roulait ses prunelles de faïence bleue.

     Mr. Lacarelle raised his long Gallic moustache and rolled his blue earthenware eyes.

4. (archaic) a type of cloth

Derived terms

• tenir à quelque chose comme à la prunelle de ses yeux

Related terms

• prunellier

Further reading

• “prunelle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012