Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

prim

/pɹɪm/ adjective, verb, noun, proper noun

Forms primmer primmest prims primming primmed

  1. adjective Of a person, their manner or appearance: Formal and precise; stiffly decorous.
  2. adjective (by extension, of a person) Prudish; straight-laced.
  3. adjective Of things: Neat; trim. “prim regularity”
  4. verb (intransitive) To make one's expression prim. [with up]
  5. verb (transitive) To give a prim or demure expression to (one's face, mouth, or (rare) lips).
  6. verb (transitive) To dress (one) up affectedly or demurely. [with up or out]
  7. noun (obsolete) A prim person.
  8. noun (botany) privet
  9. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

prim up prim out dainty mincing niminy-piminy twee priggish prissy prudish puritanical square-toed straitlaced strait-laced straightlaced straight-laced tight-laced victorian

Etymology

In the verb sense, first appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's A Fool's Preferment in the year 1688.
In the noun sense, first appeared in A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew in the year 1699, meaning "prig." Now obsolete.
In the adjective sense, first appeared in Sir Richard Steele's The Funeral in the year 1702, meaning "consciously or affectedly strict or precise; stiffly formal and respectable."
Oxford English Dictionary proposed a relation with primp and prink. Chiefly Scottish and U.S.

Unknown; see privet.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The privet.
  2. adjective Formal; precise; affectedly neat or nice; as, prim regularity; a prim person. Swift.
  3. verb To deck with great nicety; to arrange with affected preciseness; to prink.
  4. verb To dress or act smartly. [R.]

Etymology [See Privet.]

Etymology [OF. prim, prin, prime, first, principal. sharp, thin, piercing, fr. L. primus first. See Prime, a.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “prim”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details