Miss Priss
1
9.9
- noun
- /mɪs prɪs/
- Offensive
:
remilgada (despectivo)
- I don't want to be a Miss Priss about it, but we should follow the dress code.
- Little Miss Priss
Examples
-
All right, Miss Priss, cut that out.
-
"Well, don't blame me, Miss Priss," she said from inside the freezer chest.
Fiction book (1992) -
"And you, Miss Priss, can just go right back to keeping that mouth of yours shut."
Fiction book (1999) -
- What's wrong with you, Miss Priss?
-
" And it's OK, you don't have to play Miss Priss with me."
Fiction book (2001) -
Don't be such a Miss Priss; it's okay to have fun sometimes.
-
She always acts like a Miss Priss when we go out for casual dinner.
Synonyms
6
8.7
A person who is too careful about being proper and easily shocked
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound combines the title 'Miss' (an unmarried woman/girl) with 'priss' (someone overly proper), so its meaning 'an excessively proper woman or girl' is directly inferable from the constituents. Although colloquial and slightly derogatory, the composition follows transparent, compositional logic that a B1 learner who knows both words can readily interpret.
Etymology
Miss Priss likely comes from putting the polite title Miss together with the old word priss, which meant a very 'proper' and fussy person. Picture a young woman so neat and careful she will not get her shoes dirty, and that is why the name came to mean 'a person who is too proper'.