prune
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English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation)IPA(key): /pɹuːn/
- (General American)IPA(key): /pɹun/
- (General Australian)IPA(key): /pɹʉːn/
- (Wales, Ottawa Valley)IPA(key): /pɹɪu̯n/
Audio (AU) (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.
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.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Translations
plum — see plum
dried plum
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old woman
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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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , 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], , →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, , : Tho 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
Translations
trim a tree or shrub
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(figuratively) cut down or shorten
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Anagrams
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
Noun
prune f (plural prunes)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “prune”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Latin
Noun
prūne
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, from Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦνον (proûnon), προῦμνον (proûmnon). Doublet of plomme.
Pronunciation
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
Romanian
Pronunciation
Noun
prune