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▪ I. † prim, n.1 Obs.
Also 6 prym(me.
[Origin obscure; the sense and date are against connexion with prim a.]
A pretty girl or young woman; a paramour.
1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) I. 250 Than must he have another prymme or twayne. 1514― Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 2 Aboute all London there was no propre prym But long tyme had ben famylyer with hym. c1520Bk. Mayd Emlyn 42 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 84 With suche wordes douse Thys lytell prety mouse The yonge lusty prymme She coude byte and whyne. c1530Hickscorner in Hazl. Dodsley I. 181, I would that hell were full of such prims, As Jane, Kate, Bess, and Sybil. 1573G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 102 So pretty a prim of every limme. [1847–78Halliwell, Prim, (2) a neat pretty girl. Yorksh. (Obs., Eng. Dial. Dict.)]
▪ II. prim, n.2 Now local.
[app., like primp, short for prim-print.]
A name of the privet.
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 33 Set priuie or prim, set boxe like him. 1610G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. ii. xliv, How her watchman, arm'd with boughie crest, A wall of prim hid in his bushes bears. 1629Parkinson Paradisus 445 Ligustrum—Primme or Priuet. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Prim, privet, spindle tree, Ligustrum vulgare. 1845–50A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. 137 The prim or privet..is found growing wild in some parts of New England.
▪ III. prim, n.3 Obs. or dial.
[orig. app. a slang or cant word. Related to prim a. and prim v., q.v.]
A formal, precise, or ‘stuck-up’ person.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Prim, a silly empty starcht Fellow. 1876Blackmore Cripps III. xii. 192 A prude, or a prim, she would never wish to be.
▪ IV. prim, n.4 rare.
[f. prim v.]
The act of primming or screwing up the mouth.
a1825Mrs. Sherwood in Houlston Tracts II. No. 31. 11 When..a peculiar prim of the mouth was observed in the good housekeeper, the subject which had excited these symptoms was never pursued any further.
▪ V. prim, n.5 dial.
(See quot.)
a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Prim, very small smelts. So called at Lynn, where the smelts are remarkably fine.
▪ VI. prim, a.
[Goes with prim n.3 and v.: see the latter.]
a. Of persons, their manner, speech, etc.: Consciously or affectedly strict or precise; formal, stiff, demure.
1709Steele & Swift Tatler No. 66 ⁋4 A spruce Mercer is farther off the Air of a Fine Gentleman, than a downright Clown... I indeed proposed to flux him; but Greenhat answer'd, That if he recovered, he'd be as prim and feat as ever he was. 1727Gay Begg. Op. ii. iv, As prim and demure as ever! 178.Sheridan Sch. Scand., Portrait, Tell me, ye prim adepts in Scandal's school. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xviii. viii. 148 The next figure is that of a prim Miss of 12 or 13. 1833H. Martineau T. Tyne i. 10 Setting his lips in a prim form. 1838Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) I. 91 Pretty fairish for a prim Quakeress. 1885Black White Heather i, His costume was somewhat prim and precise.
b. Of things: Formal, regular, stiff.
1771H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. IV. vii. 137 The garden in its turn was to be set free from its prim regularity, that it might assort with the wilder country without. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 399 In many places, their forest trees have more the appearance of a prim hedge, than of timber. 1865Trollope Belton Est. vii, A square prim garden, arranged in parallelograms.
c. Comb., as prim-lipped, prim-mouthed, prim-seeming, prim-set adjs.
1735Prompter 21 Jan. 2/2 Will she give Room to the prim-seeming Wife, or the less-cautious Widow? 1899Westm. Gaz. 12 June 1/3 Then Force scarce hid, with a prim-set lip, the length of its eager tooth. 1926J. Masefield Odtaa xix. 318 A prim-lipped man, with the look of a ‘spoiled priest’,..seemed to be in charge of the guard. 1953E. S. Grenfell in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 74 The old man turned a..prim-lipped face to the parson.
▪ VII. prim, v.
[Prim v., prim n.3, and prim adj., appear to have come into use in the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th c., the vb. being evidenced in 1684, the n. a 1700, and the adj. in 1709. The n. appears first as a cant word, and in this capacity it may have been used before the vb. But the latter is the first of the group to appear in Dictionaries: see quots. 1706 and 1721. Johnson knew the vb. (in sense 2 b), and the adjective. (He thought the vb. derived from the adj., and the adj. a contraction of primitive.)]
1. intr. (also to prim it). To assume a formal, precise, or demure look or air; ‘to set the mouth conceitedly’; to prim up, to bridle up, set the face or mouth firmly, as if to repel familiarities.
1684Otway Atheist 111, A vain, pert, empty rogue, That can prim, dance, lisp, or lie very much. 1703Rules Civility 206 A Lady will Prim it, or bridle it up, or pull off her Glove to shew a fine Hand. 1706Phillips, To Prim, to be full of affected Ways, to be much conceited. 1721Bailey, Prim, to set the Mouth conceitedly, to be full of affected ways. 1748Richardson Clarissa IV. 99, I therefore wink'd at her. She primm'd; nodded, to shew she took me. 1781F. Burney Lett. 22 Sept., Tell dear Kitty not to prim up as if we had never met before. 1893G. Meredith Ld. Ormont i, They mince and prim and pout, and are sigh-away and dying-ducky.
2. trans. To form (the face or mouth) into an expression of affected preciseness or demureness; to close (the lips) primly.
1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 44 The Choicest Looking-Glass in Christendom for a Country Corridon to prim his Phiz by. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1810) III. 350 She prims up her horse-mouth. 1809Malkin Gil Blas ii. vii. ⁋22 Primming up her mouth into a smile, [she] promulgated this comfortable doctrine. 1816Scott Old Mort. vii, Her arms were folded, her mouth primmed into an expression of respect mingled with obstinacy. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iv. iv, Mark also the Abbé Maury: his broad bold face; mouth accurately primmed; full eyes. 1876G. Meredith Beauch. Career III. viii. 138 Rosamund primmed her lips at the success of her probing touch.
b. ‘To deck up precisely, to form into an affected nicety’ (J.); chiefly with up, out. In later use, to make prim.
1721Ramsay Tartana 344 May she..Be ridicul'd while primm'd up in her scarf. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1810) III. iv. 36 When she was primmed out, down she came to him. 1860Holme Lee Leg. fr. Fairy Land 5 So Idle primmed herself up..and went out in the finest intentions. 1863― Annie Warleigh's Fort. III. 229 My Gypsy..trimmed and pruned and primmed in the likeness of a wee quakeress, the picture of precision and demure obedience. 1875Ruskin Fors Clav. lii. 95 This [church] has been duly patched..and primmed up.
Hence ˈprimming vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1690D'Urfey Collin's Walk thro. Lond. i. 36 Where primming Sister, Aunt, or Coz, Tune their warm zeal with Hum and Buz. 1822W. Irving Braceb. Hall (1845) 368 Mrs. Hannah,..with much primming of the mouth, and many maidenly hesitations, requested leave to stay behind. |