prawn
English
Etymology 1
First attested early 1400s as various Middle English forms prayne, prane, praune, and prawne, which present no clear cognates in languages other than English. The forms suggest a hypothetical Old English form *prægn, where *æg would have evolved into Middle English *ay, but it is unclear if the word is of Germanic origin, from another European language, or loaned from a substrate. In the Isle of Wight, a word prankle ("prawn") is recorded[1] and thought to be related.[2] Century, following Skeat, suggested transposition of an unrecorded Old French *parne, *perne related to Spanish perna (“a flat shellfish”), Old Italian perna and diminutive pernochie, parnocchie, glossed as "shrimps or prawne, fishes" by John Florio,[3] but the OED considers Florio's entry incorrect and the suggested connection semantically and phonologically implausible.[2]
(woman with toned body but unattractive face): From the idea of discarding the head of a prawn before eating it.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /pɹɔːn/
- (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): /pɹoːn/
- (US, Canada) IPA(key): /pɹɔn~pɹɑn/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɔːn
Noun
prawn (countable and uncountable, plural prawn or prawns)
- A crustacean of the suborder Dendrobranchiata.
- (Commonwealth) A crustacean, sometimes confused with shrimp.
- (Australia, colloquial, derogatory) Synonym of butterface: A woman with an attractive body but an unattractive face.
- She's a prawn!
- (Australia, slang) A fool, an idiot.
Derived terms
- Aesop prawn (Pandalus borealis)
- Alaskan prawn (Pandalus platyceros)
- banana prawn (Penaeidae spp.)
- come the raw prawn
- common prawn (Palaemon serratus)
- deep-sea prawn, deepwater prawn (Pandalus borealis)
- Dublin Bay prawn (Nephrops norvegicus)
- furrowed prawn (Penaeus latisulcatus)
- giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon)
- great northern prawn (Pandalus borealis)
- green prawn
- Indian prawn (Fenneropenaeus indicus)
- king prawn
- kuruma prawn (Marsupenaeus japonicus)
- lawn prawn
- long-clawed prawn (Palaemon australis)
- mantis prawn (Squilla spp.)
- monsoon river prawn (Macrobrachium malcolmsonii)
- musical prawn (Penaeopsis novae-guineae)
- Oriental river prawn (Macrobrachium nipponense)
- Parktown prawn (Libanasidus vittatus)
- pistol prawn (Crangonidae spp.)
- porn and prawn
- prawn cocktail
- prawn cocktail offensive
- prawn cracker
- prawn killer
- prawn sandwich brigade
- prawn toast
- queen prawn (Penaeidae spp.)
- river prawn (Palaemon australis)
- royal red prawn (Haliporoides sibogae)
- school prawn (Metapenaeus macleayi)
- snapping prawn (Crangonidae spp.)
- soldier prawn (Plesionka martia)
- spot prawn (Pandalus platyceros)
- tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon)
Translations
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Verb
prawn (third-person singular simple present prawns, present participle prawning, simple past and past participle prawned)
- (intransitive) To fish for prawns.
Etymology 2
Alternative spelling of pron (pronounced identically with cot-caught merger), which in turn is a corrupted spelling of porn.
Noun
prawn (plural prawns)
- Alternative form of porn.
References
- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
- Århammar, Nils (1986): Aspects of Language: Geolinguistics
- ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1903), “PRANKLE”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume IV (M–Q), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 OUPblog
- ^ “prawn”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
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