prudish

Etymology

It is formed from English prude + -ish.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED takes the base as the noun, Etymonline as the adjective.^[2][3] The noun, recorded in English from 1704,^[3] is from French prude, a back-formation from preudhomme or preudefemme, with its form probably altered by association with prudent.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Excessively reserved or demure: 1717, in T. Purney's Full Enquiry into True Nature of Pastoral: “Of this kind is a Prudish Character, or excessively reserved.”^[2][3][4] The related noun prudery is a little older, from 1708.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The French prude had first been a term of praise, for a wise, serious woman (1640), before the negative sense largely replaced it;^[2] the English adjective has only the negative sense.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as “Affectedly grave”, with a quotation from Garrick about a “formal lecture, spoke with prudish face”.^[7] From 1771 to 1886 it was also used figuratively of things, as extremely prim or rigid, as in T. Smollett's Humphry Clinker: “The trees are planted in prudish rows”.^[2] Modern dictionaries tie the word especially to sexual matters.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1717 – of a person, excessively or affectedly demure or modest.^[2][3][4]
• 1771 – figuratively, of a thing, extremely prim, formal or rigid (obsolete, last recorded 1886).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Excessively or affectedly modest or demure, especially about sexual matters; prim or priggish: His prudish aunt left the theatre at the interval.^[2][4][5][8]
2. Of a remark or attitude, showing such excessive concern for propriety: prudish reviews of the novel.^[2][4]

Word family

• prudishly
• prudishness

Related words

• prudery
• prude
• proud
• prudhomme

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin