purse
pronunciation
How to pronounce purse in British English:
UK [pɜːs]
How to pronounce purse in American English:
US [pɜːrs]
-
- Noun:
- a bag used for carrying money and small personal items or accessories (especially by women)
- a sum of money spoken of as the contents of a money purse
- a small bag for carrying money
- a sum of money offered as a prize
-
- Verb:
- contract one's lips into a rounded shape
- gather or contract into wrinkles or folds; pucker
Word Origin
- purse
- purse: [OE] Purse was borrowed into Old English from late Latin bursa (source of English bursar [13] and reimburse [17]), which went back to Greek búrsa. This originally meant ‘skin, leather’, and hence came to be used for ‘wineskin, bag’. The Latin word was also borrowed into the Celtic languages, where it produced Gaelic sporan, source of English sporran.=> bursar, reimburse, sporran
- purse (n.)
- Old English pursa "little bag made of leather," especially for carrying money, from Medieval Latin bursa "leather purse" (source also of Old French borse, 12c., Modern French bourse; see bourse), from Late Latin bursa, variant of byrsa "hide," from Greek byrsa "hide, leather." Change of b- to p- perhaps by influence of Old English pusa, Old Norse posi "bag." Meaning "woman's handbag" is attested from 1951. Meaning "sum of money collected as a prize in a race, etc.," is from 1640s. Purse-strings, figurative for "control of money," is from early 15c. Purse-snatcher first attested 1902 (earlier purse-picker, 1540s). The notion of "drawn together by a thong" also is behind purse-net (c. 1400).
- purse (v.)
- c. 1300, "put in a purse;" c. 1600 as "draw together and wrinkle" (as the strings of a money bag), from purse (n.). Related: Pursed; pursing.
Example
- 1. The plutocrats may yet be tightening their purse strings .
- 2. The purse is soft kid leather , black with a silver snap clasp .
- 3. Investors are already tightening their purse strings .
- 4. She has realised that the tiny purse , curled in her palm , surrounds sharp metal .
- 5. The many creditors who have acquiesced include banks that themselves rely on the government 's purse .