Etymologically
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purse

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /pɜːs/, US /pɝːs/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English purs, inherited from Old English purs,[2][3][4] borrowed from Medieval Latin bursa (“purse”), altered perhaps under the influence of pusa (“bag”).[2][5] The Medieval Latin word is a variant of Late Latin byrsa (“hide”),[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, leather”), of unknown origin,[2][3][4] and also gave French bourse.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small pouch or bag of leather for carrying money: before 1100.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The purse is named after its traditional material, leather; the same Latin word gave bursar, disburse and reimburse.[7] A purse with its contents, money or funds, is from about 1350,[6] and a sum collected as a present or prize from 1650.[6] The verb, to put into one's purse, is from 1303,[2][6] and to draw the lips together and wrinkle them, from the drawing of purse strings, from the early 17th century.[3][8] The purse-net with a drawstring is from about 1400, and purse-proud, proud of one's wealth, from the 1680s.[3] In Yorkshire dialect to purse was to have goose-flesh.[9]

Timeline

  • before 1100 – a money bag.[6]
  • 1303 – to purse (verb).[2][6]
  • c. 1350 – money, funds.[6]
  • c. 1400 – purse-net.[3]
  • c. 1600 – to wrinkle, pucker.[3]
  • 1650 – a prize or present of money.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A small bag or pouch for carrying money, especially coins.
  2. (US, Canada) A woman's handbag.
  3. Something resembling a small bag or pouch.
  4. Wealth; funds.
  5. A sum of money offered as a prize.

Verb

  1. To draw the lips or brow together into folds; to pucker.

Word family

  • purselike
  • purseless
  • cutpurse
  • purse-proud
  • purser
  • pursy
  • beggar's purse
  • purse-string suture
  • bursa
  • bursar
  • bursary
  • reimburse
  • disburse
  • bourse

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)