prince

From Anglo-Norman, from Old French prince, from Latin prīnceps (“first head”), from prīmus (“first”) + capiō (“seize, take”). Doublet of princeps. Displaced native Old English æþeling.

• enPR: prĭns, IPA^(key): /pɹɪns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪns
• Homophone: prints (/pɹɪnts/) (in some accents)

prince (plural princes)

1. (now archaic or historical) A (male) ruler, a sovereign; a king, monarch. [from 13th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 42, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     Truely, to see our Princes all alone, sitting at their meat, beleagred round with so many talkers, whisperers, and gazing beholders, unknowne what they are or whence they come, I have often rather pittied than envied them.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, 2010, p.600:

     By his last years Erasmus realized that princes like Henry VIII and François I had deceived him in their elaborate negotiations for universal peace, but his belief in the potential of princely power for good remained undimmed.

   • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, 2010, p.411:

     If Henry does not fully trust him, is it surprising? A prince is alone: in his council chamber, in his bedchamber, and finally in Hell's antechamber, stripped – as Harry Percy said – for Judgment.

2. (obsolete) A female monarch.
   • 1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, OCLC 1064186951:

     Queen Elizabeth, a prince admirable above her sex.

3. Someone who is preeminent in their field; a great person. [from 13th c.]

   He is a prince among men.

4. The (male) ruler or head of a principality. [from 14th c.]
   • 2011, Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, 26 June:

     He is the prince who never grew up – a one-time playboy and son of the Hollywood star Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco.

5. A male member of a royal family other than the ruler; especially (in the United Kingdom) the son or grandson of the monarch. [from 14th c.]
6. A non-royal high title of nobility, especially in France and the Holy Roman Empire.

   Prince Louis de Broglie won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics.

   • 2011, Katharine Whitehorn, The Guardian, 16 October:

     Conspiracy theories are always enticing: one I was involved with in the 50s was about Mayerling, the 19th-century Austrian scandal involving a prince’s lover who died in dodgy circumstances in a hunting lodge.

7. The mushroom Agaricus augustus.
8. A type of court card used in tarot cards, the equivalent of the jack.
9. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Rohana.

• The female equivalent is princess.
• A prince is usually addressed as "Your Highness". A son of a king is "His Royal Highness"; a son of an emperor is "His Imperial Highness". A sovereign prince may have a style such as "His Serene Highness".

• ruler

• Agaricus augustus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Agaricus sect. Arvenses on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Agaricus augustus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• prince in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• prince in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

• pincer

From Middle French prince, from Old French prince, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin prīnceps.

• IPA^(key): /pʁɛ̃s/

• audio

  (file)

prince m (plural princes)

1. prince

• “prince”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• pincer

From Old French prince.

prince m (plural princes)

1. prince

• French: prince

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin prīnceps.

• (classical) IPA^(key): /ˈprintsə/
• (late) IPA^(key): /ˈprinsə/

prince m (oblique plural princes, nominative singular princes, nominative plural prince)

1. prince

From Latin prīnceps, possibly a borrowing.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɾint͡se/

prince m (oblique plural princes, nominative singular princes, nominative plural prince)

1. prince
   • c. 1235, anonymous, Vida of Jaufre Rudel:

     Jaufres Rudels de Blaia si fo mout gentils hom, e fo princes de Blaia.

     Jaufre Rudel of Blaye was a most noble man, and was the Lord of Blaye.

prince m (plural princes, feminine princesse, feminine plural princesses)

1. prince