prune

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English prune, from Old French prune,[1] from Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦνον (proûnon), variant of προῦμνον (proûmnon, “plum”), a loanword from a language of Asia Minor. Doublet of plum.

Noun

prune (plural prunes)

  1. (obsolete) A plum.
  2. The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
    Hyponym: alubukhara
  3. (figurative) Something wrinkly like a prune.
    • 1970, Dana Densmore, “Without You And Within You”, in No More Fun & Games, volume 4, page 55:
      We are not free when we are in the grip of the false conditioning that decrees that we need sex. We are not free if we believe the culture's ominous warnings that we will become "horny" (what a callous, offensive word) and frustrated and neurotic and finally shrivel up into prunes and have to abandon hope of being good, creative, effective people.
  4. (slang) An old woman, especially a wrinkly one.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

prune (third-person singular simple present prunes, present participle pruning, simple past and past participle pruned)

  1. (intransitive, informal) To become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
    • 2005, Alycia Ripley, Traveling with an Eggplant, page 111:
      I hardly left that spot in my pool that month even when my fingers pruned and chlorine dried out my skin.

Etymology 2

From Middle English prunen, prounen, proinen, from Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”), earlier prooignier.[2] Likely influenced by Middle French rogner, Old French rooignier (“cut, trim”) (from Latin rotundo?), and possibly by Old French provainier (“provine”) (Latin propaginem? whence French provigner).[3] The relation to the noun is thus unclear.

Verb

prune (third-person singular simple present prunes, present participle pruning, simple past and past participle pruned)

  1. (transitive, horticulture) To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
    A good grape grower will prune the vines once a year.
    • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 191:
      But poore old man, thou prun'ſt a rotten tree, / That cannot ſo much as a bloſſome yeelde
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Our delightful task / To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers.
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
    to prune a budget, or an essay
  3. (transitive) To remove (something unnecessary) for the sake of cutting down or shortening that which it was previously part of.
    • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 229:
      When internal dissension and a decline in popularity set in, Johnny was pruned from the Crests.
  4. (transitive, computer science) To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
  5. (obsolete, falconry) to trim the feathers with the beak
  6. (obsolete) To preen; to prepare; to dress.
Derived terms
Translations

References

  1. ^ “prūne, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 14 May 2025.
  2. ^ “proinen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 14 May 2025.
  3. ^ Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “*rotundiare”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 10: R, page 519, after Friedrich Diez, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen, fifth edition (1887), p. 671
  • proignier in Anglo-Norman Dictionary, Aberystwyth University, 2022
  • provigner in Anglo-Norman Dictionary, Aberystwyth University, 2022

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦμνον (proûmnon).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pʁyn/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

prune f (plural prunes)

  1. plum
  2. (slang) ticket (“traffic citation”)

Derived terms

Further reading

Latin

Noun

prūne

  1. vocative singular of prūnus

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, from Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦνον (proûnon), προῦμνον (proûmnon). Doublet of plomme. See above for the verb.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpriu̯n(ə)/

Noun

prune (plural prunes)

  1. A plum (fruit of Prunus domestica)
  2. A prune (dried plum)
  3. (pathology) A large, rounded boil.

Descendants

  • English: prune

References

Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum.

Noun

prune oblique singular, f (oblique plural prunes, nominative singular prune, nominative plural prunes)

  1. plum (fruit)

Descendants

Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpru.ne/

Noun

prune

  1. plural of prună
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