different between gash vs prick

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

Alteration of older garsh, from Middle English garsen, from Old French garser, jarsier (Modern French gercer), from Vulgar Latin *charax?re, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “engraver”).

Alternative forms

• garsh (dated)

Noun

gash (countable and uncountable, plural gashes)

1. A deep cut.
   • 2006, New York Times, “Bush Mourns 9/11 at Ground Zero as N.Y. Remembers”, [1]:

     Vowing that he was “never going to forget the lessons of that day,” President Bush paid tribute last night to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, laying wreaths at ground zero, attending a prayer service at St. Paul’s Chapel and making a surprise stop at a firehouse and a memorial museum overlooking the vast gash in the ground where the twin towers once stood.

2. (slang, vulgar) A vulva.
   • 1959, William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:

     “Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing.”

3. (slang, offensive) A woman
   • 1934, James T. Farrell, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, Ch. 19:

     "Will you bastards quit singing the blues? You're young, and there's plenty of gash in the world, and the supply of moon goes on forever," Simonsky said.

4. (slang, British Royal Navy) Rubbish, spare kit
5. (slang) Rubbish on board an aircraft
6. (slang) Unused film or sound during film editing
7. (slang) Poor quality beer, usually watered down.

Translations

Adjective

gash (comparative more gash, superlative most gash)

1. (slang) Of poor quality; makeshift; improvised; temporary; substituted.

Verb

gash (third-person singular simple present gashes, present participle gashing, simple past and past participle gashed)

1. To make a deep, long cut; to slash.

Translations

Etymology 2

From ghastful, by association with gash.

Adjective

gash (comparative more gash, superlative most gash)

1. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) ghastly; hideous

Related terms

• gashful
• gashly

Anagrams

• HAGS, hags, shag

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??k/, [p?????k]
• Rhymes: -?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English prik, prikke, from Old English prica, pricu (“a sharp point, minute mark, spot, dot, small portion, prick”), from Proto-Germanic *prikô, *prik? (“a prick, point”), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *brey?- (“to scrape, scratch, rub, prickle, chap”). Cognate with West Frisian prik (“small hole”), Dutch prik (“point, small stick”), Danish prik (“dot”), Icelandic prik (“dot, small stick”). Pejorative context came from prickers, or witch-hunters.

Noun

prick (plural pricks)

1. A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing. [from 10th c.]
2. An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object. [from 10th c.]
3. (obsolete) A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point. [10th-18th c.]
4. (obsolete) A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot. [10th-18th c.]
5. A small pointed object. [from 10th c.]
6. The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object. [from 13th c.]

7. A feeling of remorse.
   • 1768–1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued

     the pricks of conscience

8. (slang, vulgar) The penis. [from 16th c.]
9. (Britain, Australia, US, slang, derogatory) Someone (especially a man or boy) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying. [from 16th c.]
10. (now historical) A small roll of yarn or tobacco. [from 17th c.]
11. The footprint of a hare.
12. (obsolete) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
13. (obsolete) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
    • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, "September"

      they that shooten nearest the prick

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English prikken, from Old English prician, priccan (“to prick”), from Proto-Germanic *prik?n?, *prikjan? (“to pierce, prick”), of uncertain origin; perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *brey?- (“to scrape, scratch, rub, prickle, chap”). Cognate with dialectal English pritch, Dutch prikken (“to prick, sting”), Middle High German pfrecken (“to prick”), Swedish pricka (“to dot, prick”), and possibly to Lithuanian ?br?žti (“to scrape, scratch, carve, inscribe, strike”).

Verb

prick (third-person singular simple present pricks, present participle pricking, simple past and past participle pricked)

1. (transitive) To pierce or puncture slightly. [from 11th c.]
   1. (farriery) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
2. (transitive) To form by piercing or puncturing.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowper to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
   • c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers

     Some who are pricked for sheriffs.
4. (transitive, chiefly nautical) To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart). [from 16th c.]
5. (nautical, obsolete) To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.
6. To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.
   • 1615, George Sandys, The Relation of a Journey begun an. Dom. 1610, in four books

     The cooks [...]prick it [a slice] on a prog of iron.
7. (intransitive, dated) To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
   • 17th century (probably 1606), William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV, scene 1:

     By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.

8. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as something pointed; said especially of the ears of an animal, such as a horse or dog; and usually followed by up.

   • The courser [...] pricks up his ears.

9. (horticulture) Usually in the form prick out: to plant (seeds or seedlings) in holes made in soil at regular intervals.
10. (transitive) To incite, stimulate, goad. [from 13th c.]
11. (intransitive, archaic) To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly. [from 14th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

      At last, as through an open plaine they yode,
      They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre [...].

    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, lines 527 to 538.

    • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

      Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankind pricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

12. To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.

    • Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.

    • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Geraint and Enid

      I was pricked with some reproof.

13. (transitive) To make acidic or pungent.
14. (intransitive) To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
15. To aim at a point or mark.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Hawkins to this entry?)

16. (obsolete, usually as prick up) to dress or adorn; to prink.

Translations

Swedish

Pronunciation

Adverb

prick

1. exactly, sharp, on the spot

Noun

prick c

1. a dot, small spot

2. a remark, a stain (in a record of good behaviour)

3. a guy, person; especially about a particularly nice or funny one

4. a floating seamark in the form of a painted pole, possibly with cones, lights and reflectors

Usage notes

(guy, person): Mainly used in conjunction with the adjectives rolig (“funny”) or trevlig (“nice”), but also ruskig (“eerie, scary”).

Declension

Related terms

• pricka
• prickig

Derived terms

References

• prick in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)