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Prim vs Spruce - What's the difference?

prim | spruce |

As nouns the difference between prim and spruce

is that prim is prime (the first note or tone of a musical scale) while spruce is (obsolete) prussia.

prim

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) prim, prin, from (etyl) (lena) .

Adjective

(primmer)
  • prudish, straight-laced
  • formal; precise; affectedly neat or nice
  • prim''' regularity; a '''prim person
    (Jonathan Swift)
    Usage notes
    Often used in the collocation “prim and proper”.
    Derived terms
    * prim and proper * prissy

    Verb

  • (dated) To make affectedly precise or proper.
  • (dated) To dress or act smartly.
  • Etymology 2

    See privet.

    Noun

  • (botany) privet
  • (Webster 1913) ----

    spruce

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees from the genus Picea , found in northern temperate and boreal regions; originally and more fully spruce fir.
  • (uncountable) The wood of a spruce.
  • (used attributively) Made of the wood of the spruce.
  • That spruce table is beautiful!
  • (obsolete) Prussia leather; pruce.
  • * E. Phillips
  • Spruce , a sort of leather corruptly so called for Prussia leather.

    See also

    * (Spruce) * (Picea)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (comparable) Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person).
  • * 1919 ,
  • He had great neatness of person, and he continued to wear his spruce black coat and his bowler hat, always a little too small for him, in a dapper, jaunty manner.
  • * 2012 , The Economist, 13th Oct 2012, Plessey returns: Chips with everything
  • The two clean rooms, where chips are made, are sprucer than a hospital theatre.

    Verb

    (spruc)
  • To arrange neatly; tidy up.
  • ) To make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance).
  • To tease.
  • Derived terms

    * (l)

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * (l)