prim

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪm/, [pʰɹ̠̊ɪm]

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• Rhymes: -ɪm

From Provençal prim (“delicate, excellent”), from Old French prim, prin, from Latin primus (“first”). Doublet of prime.

prim (comparative primmer, superlative primmest)

1. prudish, straight-laced
   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     God damn it, what does she want of me, this sad, beautiful bridgeplayer of the Fifth Floor, with her air of lost love and her prim carnality? After seven years of her, Brotherhood still had no idea. He'd be out touring the stations, he'd be in Bongabonga land. He'd not speak or write to her for months. Yet he'd hardly unpacked his toothbrush before she was in his arms, demanding him with her sad and hungry eyes.

2. formal; precise; affectedly neat or nice

   prim regularity; a prim person

   • 1708, [Jonathan Swift], “(please specify the page)”, in Baucis and Philemon; a Poem. […], London: […] H. Hills, […], published 1709, OCLC 745157818:

     Philemon was in great surprise,⁠
     And hardly could believe his eyes,
     Amaz'd to see her look so prim;
     And she admir'd as much at him.

• prim and proper
• prissy

prim (third-person singular simple present prims, present participle primming, simple past and past participle primmed)

1. (dated) To make affectedly precise or proper.
2. (dated) To dress or act smartly.

See privet.

prim

1. (plants) privet

From Latin prīmus[1], from earlier prīsmos from *prīsemos from Proto-Italic *priisemos.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈpɾim/
• Rhymes: -im

prim (feminine prima, masculine plural prims, feminine plural primes)

1. thin, skinny

• aprimar
• primesa
• primor

• primer

• “prim” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “prim” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “prim” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• prum

From Latin prīmus.

prim m (feminine singular prima, masculine plural primi, feminine plural primes)

1. first

From Latin prīma (“first; first hour”).

• IPA^(key): /priːm/

prīm ?

1. (historical) Prime, the first hour or tide (3-hour period) after dawn
2. (Christianity) Prime, the divine office appointed for the hour in the liturgy

• (hour; tide): āntīd
• (service): prīmsang

• prīmsang

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898), “prīm”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

From Latin prīmus, from earlier prīsmos < *prīsemos < Proto-Italic *priisemos.

• IPA^(key): /prim/

prim m or n (feminine singular primă, masculine plural primi, feminine and neuter plural prime)

1. prime, first

• întâi

• ultim

• primar
• primăvară
• împrimă

From Ottoman Turkish پریم‎ (prim), from French prime.

prim (definite accusative primi, plural primler)

1. prize
2. premium

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “prim”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Avery, Robert et al., editors (2013) The Redhouse Dictionary Turkish/Ottoman English, 21st edition, Istanbul: Sev Yayıncılık, →ISBN

prim (nominative plural prims)

1. beginning