prawn
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prawn¹
- /pɹɔːn/ UK
- /pɹoːn/ Australia, British, New Zealand
- /pɹɔn/ US
- /pɹɑn/ US, cot caught merger
- /pɹɒn/ Canada
- /pɾɔn/ Scotland
- /pɾɔːn/ Wales
Rhymes with -ɔːn
Where it comes from
First attested early 1400s as various Middle English forms prayne, prane, praune, and prawne, which present no clear cognates in languages other than English. The forms suggest a hypothetical Old English form *prægn, where *æg would have evolved into Middle English *ay, but it is unclear if the word is of Germanic origin, from another European language, or loaned from a substrate. In the Isle of Wight, a word prankle ("prawn") is recorded and thought to be related. Century, following Skeat, suggested transposition of an unrecorded Old French *parne, *perne related to Spanish perna (“a flat shellfish”), Old Italian perna and diminutive pernochie, parnocchie, glossed as "shrimps or prawne, fishes" by John Florio, but the OED considers Florio's entry incorrect and the suggested connection semantically and phonologically implausible.
Etymology 1, noun sense 3 ("woman with attractive body and unattractive face") is from the idea of discarding the head of a prawn before eating it.
noun prawn · prawns
- A crustacean of the suborder Dendrobranchiata. The aphrodisiac nature of prawns is evident in an epigram by the Greek poet Asclepiades.
- A crustacean, sometimes confused with shrimp.
-
Synonym of butterface: A woman with an attractive body but an unattractive face.
She's a prawn!
Similar: butterface
- A fool, an idiot. This is utter dribble. I've not read much worse than this in a long time - and he admits he doesn't know - "or so I am told". Get real, you prawn.
verb prawns · prawning · prawned
- To fish for prawns.
prawn²
Where it comes from
An alternative spelling of pron (pronounced identically with cot-caught merger), which in turn is a corrupted spelling of porn.
noun prawns
- Alternative form of porn
Translations
Every language
noun large shrimp
| Español | gamba, camarón, langostino, langostín |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 징거미 jinggeomi, 새우 sae'u |
| 日本語 | エビ ebi, 海老 ebi |
| 中文 | 蝦 /虾 xiā, 明蝦 /明虾 míngxiā, 對蝦 /对虾 duìxiā |
| हिन्दी | झींगा jhīṅgā |
| Kiswahili | uduvi |
| Português | camarão, pitu |
| Français | crevette |
| Deutsch | Garnele |
| Italiano | gambero |
| Ελληνικά | γαρίδα garída |
| Română | crevetă |
| Русский | креве́тка krevétka |
| Tiếng Việt | tôm |
| العربية | جَمْبَرِي jambarī, رُوبِيَان rūbiyān |
| עברית | חֲסִילוֹנִים |
Talk about this word "prawn." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/prawn. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026. prawn. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/prawn "prawn." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/prawn.Cite this
@misc{prawn_2026,
title = {prawn},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/prawn},
urldate = {2026-11-07}
}
