| 释义 |
prissy, a. (and n.) colloq. (orig. U.S.).|ˈprɪsɪ|
[Perh. blend of prim a. and sissy.]
Precise and over-particular; prim, priggish, or prudish, esp. in a supposedly effeminate way. Also Comb. and as n.
1895J. C. Harris Mr. Rabbit at Home iv. 40 Once, when I was courting, I spoke of a sitting hen, but the young lady said I was too prissy for anything. 1905Dialect Notes III. 91 Prissy, adj. Precise, nice, over-particular. ‘She's awful prissy.’ Rare. 1925A. Woollcott in ‘L. Carroll’ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland p. viii, The extraordinary contrast between the cautious, prissy pace of the man and the mad, gay gait of the tale he told. 1927Amer. Speech II. 362/1 Prissey.., a boy who acts like a girl. ‘Don't be such a prissey, Jim.’ 1927D. Marquis Archy & Mehitabel xxiv. 107 Some strait laced prune faced bunch of prissy mouthed sisters of uncharity. 1929W. Faulkner Sound & Fury 49 He don't like that prissy dress. 1932E. Hemingway Death in Afternoon xvii. 205 He should redeem..the prissy exhibitionistic, aunt-like, withered old maid moral arrogance of a Gide. 1948M. Gilbert They never looked Inside xii. 177 She reminded him instantly of one of Walt Disney's prissy little rabbits. 1952A. Wilson Hemlock & After i. ii. 36 He was disgusted at the precise, prissy tones in which he heard himself saying, ‘It's lovely to be in the country.’ 1957Listener 2 May 722/1 His work is haunted by a disagreeable, sickly, prissy art nouveau rhythm. 1963Guardian 28 Mar. 1/3 The rather prissy manner in which Dr Beeching has chosen to announce his determination to make us turn into a new economic man. 1968Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Nov. 1327/1 The prissy, petit-bourgeois level of Robespierre. 1973B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years xxi. 244 We weren't quite as prissy as this New Generation thinks we were. 1975L. Gillen Return to Deepwater viii. 140 Good grief, you little prissy, you've been kissed before, certainly!
Hence ˈprissified a., ˈprissily adv.; ˈprissiness.
1934Webster, Prissily,..adv.—prissiness, n. 1957Observer 15 Sept. 13/2 When it aspires to epigram, the dialogue falls into a quaint, soggy prissiness. 1958Spectator 22 Aug. 246/2 Little girls prissily painted a still-life of oranges. 1963P. M. Hubbard in Mag. of Fantasy & Sci. Fiction Jan. 8/1 He had a slightly prissified voice. 1976Listener 15 July 58/1 The blackcurrant eyes, the prissily pursed mouth. 1976‘J. Ross’ I know what it's like to Die xxvi. 161 An accountant's clerk of terrifying prissiness. |