prince

From Middle English prince, from Anglo-Norman prince, from Latin prīnceps (“first head”), from prīmus (“first”) +‎ capiō (“seize, take”). Cognate with Old English fruma (“prince, ruler”). Doublet of princeps and principe.

Displaced native Middle English atheling, from Old English æþeling; Middle English kinebarn, from Old English cynebearn; Middle English alder, from Old English ealdor; and Middle English drighten, from Old English dryhten.

• 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:

     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, published 2010, page 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, published 2010, page 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:

     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.

   • 1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 423:

     In some respects the intellectual is indeed closer to the philosopher than to any specialist, and the philosopher is in more than one sense a sort of prince among the intellectuals.

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

     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 October 16, Katharine Whitehorn, The Guardian:

     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. A type of court card used in tarot cards, the equivalent of the jack.
8. The mushroom Agaricus augustus.
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

prince (third-person singular simple present princes, present participle princing, simple past and past participle princed)

1. (intransitive, rare, often followed by dummy subject it) To behave or act like a prince.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 382, column 1:

     The Roofes of Palaces, and Nature prompts them / In ſimple and lowe things, to Prince it, much / Beyond the tricke of others.

2. (transitive, rare) To transform (someone) into a prince.
   • 2005 March 30, abe slaney, “Question re John Lennon's Death”, in rec.music.beatles‎^[1] (Usenet):

     All I could remember is the chorus, and something about pumpkins turning into princesses (???!) and frogs turning into princes. I figured she meant the frog was John before she princed him.

• “prince, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• Agaricus augustus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Agaricus sect. Arvenses on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Agaricus augustus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• “prince”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “prince”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• pincer

Inherited 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

• → Ottoman Turkish: پرَنْس (prens)
  • Turkish: prens
• → Persian: پرَنس (perans)

• “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
  • → Ottoman Turkish: پرَنْس (prens)
    • Turkish: prens
  • → Persian: پرَنس (perans)

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin prīnceps.

• (classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpɾint͡sə/
• (late) IPA^(key): /ˈpɾinsə/

prince oblique singular, 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 author, 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.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• IPA^(key): /pʀɛ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

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

1. prince