# prune
## English
### Alternative forms

* proin (obsolete)

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /pɹuːn/
* (General American) IPA: /pɹun/
* (General Australian) IPA: /pɹʉːn/
* (Wales, Ottawa Valley) IPA: /pɹɪu̯n/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -uːn

### Etymology 1

From Middle English prune, from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦνον (proûnon), variant of προῦμνον (proûmnon, “plum”), a loanword from a language of Asia Minor. Doublet of plum.

#### Noun

prune (plural prunes)
* (obsolete) A plum.
* The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
    Hyponym: alubukhara
* (figurative) Something wrinkly like a prune.
** 1970, Dana Densmore, “Without You And Within You”, in No More Fun & Games, volume 4, page 55:We are not free when we are in the grip of the false conditioning that decrees that we need sex. We are not free if we believe the culture's ominous warnings that we will become "horny" (what a callous, offensive word) and frustrated and neurotic and finally shrivel up into prunes and have to abandon hope of being good, creative, effective people.
* (slang) An old woman, especially a wrinkly one.

##### Synonyms

* see Thesaurus:old woman

##### Hypernyms

* fruit

##### Derived terms

* German prune (Prunus domestica subsp. domestica)
* mirabelle prune
* prune belly syndrome
* prune plum (Prunus domestica subsp. domestica)
* prune tree
* pruney
* South African prune (Pappea capensis)

##### Translations
#### Verb

prune (third-person singular simple present prunes, present participle pruning, simple past and past participle pruned)
* (intransitive, informal) To become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
** 2005, Alycia Ripley, Traveling with an Eggplant, page 111:I hardly left that spot in my pool that month even when my fingers pruned and chlorine dried out my skin.

### Etymology 2

From Middle English prunen, prounen, proinen, from Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”), earlier prooignier, ultimately from Latin pro- ("front") + rotundus (“round”) 'to round-off the front'.

#### Verb

prune (third-person singular simple present prunes, present participle pruning, simple past and past participle pruned)
* (transitive, horticulture) To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
    A good grape grower will prune the vines once a year.
** c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 191:But poore old man, thou prun'ſt a rotten tree, / That cannot ſo much as a bloſſome yeelde
** 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Our delightful task / To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers.
* (transitive, figuratively) To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
    to prune a budget, or an essay
** 1605, Francis Bacon, “(please specify |book=1 or 2)”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC:taking into consideration how they [laws] are to be pruned and reformed
* (transitive) To remove (something unnecessary) for the sake of cutting down or shortening that which it was previously part of.
** 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 229:When internal dissension and a decline in popularity set in, Johnny was pruned from the Crests.
* (transitive, computer science) To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
* (obsolete) To preen; to prepare; to dress.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:She gins her feathers fowle disfigured Prowdly to prune, and sett on every side.
** 1677 (first performance), John Dryden, “Epilogue”, in All for Love: Or, The World Well Lost. A Tragedy, […], [London]: […] Tho[mas] Newcomb, for Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC:For 'tis observed of every scribbling man, / He grows a fop as fast as e'er he can; / Prunes up, and asks his oracle, the glass, / If pink or purple best become his face.

##### Derived terms

* pruning
* alpha-beta pruning

##### Translations
### Anagrams

* Perun, unrep

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦμνον (proûmnon).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /pʁyn/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

prune f (plural prunes)
* plum
* (slang) ticket (“traffic citation”)

#### Derived terms

* pour des prunes
* pruneau
* prunier

### Further reading

* “prune”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Latin
### Noun

prūne
* vocative singular of prūnus

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* pruna

### Etymology

Borrowed from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, from Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦνον (proûnon), προῦμνον (proûmnon). Doublet of plomme.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈpriu̯n(ə)/

### Noun

prune (plural prunes)
* A plum (fruit of Prunus domestica)
* A prune (dried plum)
* (pathology) A large, rounded boil.

#### Descendants

* English: prune

#### References

* “prūne, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-05-26.

## Old French
### Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum.

### Noun

prune oblique singular, f (oblique plural prunes, nominative singular prune, nominative plural prunes)
* plum (fruit)

#### Descendants

* French: prune
* Norman: preune
* Walloon: pronne
* → Middle English: prune, pruna
** English: prune

## Romanian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈpru.ne/

### Noun

prune
* plural of prună