prick
pronunciation
How to pronounce prick in British English:
UK [prɪk]
How to pronounce prick in American English:
US [prɪk]
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- Noun:
- insulting terms of address for people who are stupid or irritating or ridiculous
- a depression scratched or carved into a surface
- obscene terms for penis
- the act of puncturing with a small point
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- Verb:
- make a small hole into, as with a needle or a thorn
- cause a stinging pain
- raise
- prod or urge as if with a log stick
- cause a prickling sensation
- to cause a sharp emotional pain
- deliver a sting to
Word Origin
- prick
- prick: [OE] Prick is a word of the Low German area, which English shares with Dutch (prik). Its ultimate origins, though, are not known. The earliest record of its use for ‘penis’ is from the late 16th century, and in the 16th and 17th centuries women employed it as a term of endearment – a usage which did not go down well in all quarters: ‘One word alone hath troubled some, because the immodest maid soothing the young man, calls him her Prick. He who cannot away with this, instead of “my Prick”, let him write “my Sweetheart”,’ H M, Colloquies of Erasmus 1671. Prickle [OE] is a diminutive derivative.=> prickle
- prick (n.)
- Middle English prikke, from Old English prica (n.) "point, puncture; particle, small portion of space or time," common Proto-Germanic (compare Low German prik "point," Middle Dutch prick, Dutch prik, Swedish prick "point, dot"). Meaning "pointed weapon, dagger" is first attested 1550s. Earliest recorded use for "penis" is 1590s (Shakespeare puns upon it). My prick was used 16c.-17c. as a term of endearment by "immodest maids" for their boyfriends. As a term of abuse, it is attested by 1929. Prick-teaser attested from 1958. The use in kick against the pricks (Acts ix:5, first in the translation of 1382) probably is from sense of "a goad for oxen" (mid-14c.), which made it a plausible translation of Latin stimulus; advorsum stimulum calces was proverbial in Latin.
- prick (v.)
- Old English prician "to prick, pierce, prick out, sting," from West Germanic *prikojan (cognates: Low German pricken, Dutch prikken "to prick"), of uncertain origin. Danish prikke "to mark with dots," Swedish pricka "to point, prick, mark with dots" probably are from Low German. Related: Pricked; pricking. To prick up one's ears is 1580s, originally of animals with pointed ears (prycke-eared, of foxes, is from 1520s).
Example
- 1. If you prick them , do they not bleed ?
- 2. In dallas , a woman sat down at a movie theater and felt something prick her .
- 3. Remember the debate about whether central banks should prick bubbles ?
- 4. More worrying are policies designed to prick the real estate bubble .
- 5. What kind of selfish prick are you ?