prig
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɹɪɡ/
rhymes: -ɪɡ
Forms: form: prigs
Etymology: UK 16th century. Of unknown origin. Earlier noun senses ("tinker" and "thief"), as hyponyms of "undesirable person", may have informed later senses ("conceited person").
Senses: examples: text: What spruce prig is that?
ref: 1676, George Etherege, The Man of Mode, act 3, scene 3:
text: I have always had a regard for dunces; — those of my own school-days were amongst the pleasantest of the fellows, and have turned out by no means the dullest in life; whereas many a youth who could turn off Latin hexameters by the yard, and construe Greek quite glibly, is no better than a feeble prig now, with not a pennyworth more brains than were in his head before his beard grew.
ref: 1849, William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Hopeless Case”, in Doctor Birch:
text: A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.
ref: 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):
synonyms: goody-goody
prude
puritan
glosses: A deliberately superior person; a person who demonstrates an exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly arrogant or smug manner.
examples: text: A rap now at the door made all resound, / And in two bouncing blowings did rebound, / With two flash-men, a dandy, and a prig', / With whom they had been running of the rig.
ref: 1822, Thomas Dolby, Benchiana, page 67:
text: The manner of the scholar had nearly disappeared; still more the manner of the drawing-room young man. A prig would have said that he had lost his culture, and a prude that he had become coarse.
ref: 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, page 140:
synonyms: word: barbermonger
word: beau
word: blade
word: blood
word: buck
word: carpet knight
word: cockscomb
word: dandy
word: dike
word: dood
word: dude
word: dudelet
word: exquisite
word: fashionable
word: fast man
word: fine gentleman
word: fop
word: foretop
word: fribble
word: gallant
word: go
word: jack-a-dandy
word: Jemmy-Jessamy
word: jetter
word: macaroni
word: masher
word: metrosexual
word: mignon
word: petit maître
word: popinjay
word: pretty boy
word: prig
word: puss-gentleman
word: smart
word: spark
word: spiff
word: swell
word: tippy
word: toff
glosses: A conceited dandy; a fop.
examples: text: These droncken Tynckers, called also Prygges.
ref: 1566, Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors:
qualifier: thieves' cant
glosses: A tinker.
examples: text: Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig! He haunts / wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings.
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
text: Oh, why didn't he rob some rich old gentleman of all his walables, and go out as a gentleman, and not like a common prig, without no honour nor glory!
ref: 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
text: But a policeman captur'd the naughty boy, / And gave the goose to Smiggs, / And said he was greatly bother'd / By a set of juvenile prigs.
ref: a. 1890, William McGonagall, The Christmas Goose:
synonyms: word: abstractor
word: appropriator
word: bagger
word: booster
word: borrower
word: cribber
word: faker
word: filcher
word: flogger
word: heister
word: larcener
word: larcenist
word: liberator
word: lifter
word: misappropriator
word: nicker
word: pincher
word: purloiner
word: snitch
word: stealer
word: tea leaf
word: thief
word: thiever
word: cutpurse
word: dip
word: dipper
word: foist
word: footpad
word: gonoph
word: nip
word: nipper
word: pickpocket
word: pickpocketer
word: pickpurse
word: prig
qualifier: thieves' cant
glosses: A petty thief or pickpocket.
Derived terms: word: parish prig
word: prig and buz
word: priggery
word: priggish
word: priggishly
word: priggism
english: thief taker
translation: thief taker
word: prig napper
word: prig-star
word: work on the prig
Related terms: prigger
prigman