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prawn

Pronunciation: /pɹɔːn/

The English word “prawn” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A crustacean of the suborder Dendrobranchiata.
  2. A crustacean, sometimes confused with shrimp.
  3. Synonym of butterface: A woman with an attractive body but an unattractive face.
  4. A fool, an idiot.

verb

  1. To fish for prawns.

Etymology

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…

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