prissy
/ˈprɪsi
/- Though, I fear that I am becoming the woman I created for this façade; prim, proper, prissy.
- He flails around at everyone but directs most of his outbursts towards Margaret who acts like a prissy school teacher.
- If the artist's approach often tends to such simplistic judgements, it also degenerates into prissy political correctness and schoolmarmy cluck clucking.
Synonyms
Derivatives
prissily
- ‘I'd know, and that's enough,’ Dennis said rather prissily.
- ‘You shouldn't laugh at other's mistakes, Lionel,’ she said prissily.
- It was perched prissily on the pillow of Mr. and Mrs. Chonce's neatly made bed.
prissiness
- The complete lack of prissiness, pretentiousness and pomp among the Knights ensures that they themselves would never broadcast such an opinion, but there is a growing weight to it.
- He retained mahua liquor and tribal sensuality, but brought in the prissiness of the urban middleclass, plus his own reticence.
- Lyndhurst is ideally cast in the title role, a slightly malevolent character in the background, acidic of tongue and a picture of prissiness.
Origin
Late 19th century: perhaps a blend of prim and sissy.
prime from early 16th century:
At the start of the 16th century to prime was ‘to fill or load’, especially a gun for firing. It was probably based on Latin primus ‘first’, also the source of the adjective prime (Late Middle English), since priming something is the first operation you perform before using it. Priming the pump of business refers to pouring a small amount of water into a mechanical pump to establish suction so that it can begin to work properly. Primus is also the source of primary (Late Middle English); primeval (M17th from primus and aevum ‘age’); and primitive (Late Middle English). It is probably also the source of prim (late 17th century), via a Provençal variant prin meaning ‘excellent, delicate’. Prim blended with sissy gives prissy (late 19th century).