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prissy

adj
/ˈpɹɪsi/

Etymology

1895, either an alteration of precise, blend of prim + sissy, or a blend of prim + fussy; first attested in a work of American writer Joel Chandler Harris.

Definitions

  1. Prim and fussy

    Prim and fussy; too precise; overparticular.

    • She was a small, neat, rather prissy-looking girl with primly smooth brown hair and rimless glasses […]
    • As Nathanial Mayweather, heir to the Mayweather Hotel fortune, Elliott doesn’t disdain the hoi polloi so much as he considers everyone, even the faculty and headmaster at the prissiest private school in existence, to be part of it.
    • European languages like English are just prissier about getting that pronoun in there.

  2. Lacking masculine vigor

    Lacking masculine vigor; sissified; effeminate.

    • I refused to wear this properly as it looked a bit prissy, so I butchly slung it over one shoulder.
    • Mom was always pushing her only daughter to become some kind of prissy feminine beauty.
    • A pink can held shaving gel with a prissy, feminine smell.

  3. Well-mannered

    Well-mannered; well-behaved.

    • You drive like one of those prissy ladies at lunch who won't take the last cookie in case somebody else wants it.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. A person who is prissy.

      • 1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure I really like Beau. He sure enjoys being admired & lusted over. He just lays back like a king & enjoys. What a prissy!

    2. A diminutive of the female given name Priscilla.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for prissy. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA