prude

See also: Prude, prudě, prüde, and пруде

English

Etymology

From French prude, from Old French prude, prode, feminine of prou, prod, prud (“good, excellent, brave”), from Latin prōde. Related to proud but unrelated to prudent.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pro͞od, IPA^(key): /pɹuːd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -uːd

Noun

prude (plural prudes)

1. A person who is or tries to be excessively proper, especially one who is easily offended by matters of a sexual nature.
   • 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, IV [Uniform ed., p. 62]:

     He became shy. "I hadn't meant to tell you. It's not quite for a lady." For, like most men who are rather animal, he was intellectually a prude.

   • 1991, Robert M. Pirsig, Lila:

     If you didn't go for Lila you're some kind of prissy old prude. If you did go for her you were some kind of dirty old man.

Synonyms

• prig
• goody-goody
• puritan
• celibacist
• erotophobe
• antisexualist

Derived terms

• prudelike
• prudely
• prudeness
• prudery
• prudification
• prudify
• prudish
• prudism
• prudist

Related terms

• proud

Translations

A person who is or tries to be excessively proper

Catalan: purità m Czech: prudérní (cs) m (člověk) Danish: sippe c, snerpe c Dutch: preut (nl) Esperanto: prudulo, prudulino Finnish: sievistelijä (fi) French: bégueule (fr) m or f, prude (fr) m or f, sainte-nitouche (fr) f Galician: mexericas, mexeriqueiro m, mexeriqueira f, puritano m, puritana f German: prüde Person f, Prüder m, Prüde f Greek: σεμνότυφος (el) (semnótyfos) Hebrew: חָסוּד m (ẖasúd) Hungarian: prűd (hu) Icelandic: tepra f, pempía f Indonesian: sok suci Italian: prude (it) m Polish: świętoszek (pl) m, świętoszka f Portuguese: puritano (pt) m, puritana f, pudico (pt) m Romanian: pudic (ro) m, puritan (ro) m Russian: свято́ша (ru) c (svjatóša) Spanish: mojigato (es) m, mojigata (es) f Swedish: pryd person Tagalog: maliyoso f Turkish: iffet-füruş, namus düşkünü, namus kumkuması

Further reading

• “prude”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “prude”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Adjective

prude (comparative more prude, superlative most prude)

1. Prudish.

Anagrams

• Dupre, drupe, duper, perdu, red up, red-up

French

Etymology

Back-formation from prudefemme, feminine of prud'homme (“good man”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁyd/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Adjective

prude (plural prudes)

1. prude

Further reading

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