different between prune vs snip

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?u?n/
• Rhymes: -u?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English prune, from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *pr?na, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin pr?num, from Ancient Greek ??????? (proûnon), variant of ???????? (proûmnon, “plum”), a loanword from a language of Asia Minor. Doublet of plum.

Noun

prune (plural prunes)

1. (obsolete) A plum.
2. The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.

   Hyponym: alubukhara

3. (slang) An old woman, especially a wrinkly one.

Verb

prune (third-person singular simple present prunes, present participle pruning, simple past and past participle pruned)

1. (intransitive, informal) To become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
   • 2005, Alycia Ripley, Traveling with an Eggplant (page 111)

     I hardly left that spot in my pool that month even when my fingers pruned and chlorine dried out my skin.

Synonyms

• see Thesaurus:old woman

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”), earlier prooignier, ultimately from Latin pro- ("front") + rotundus (“round”) 'to round-off the front'.

Verb

prune (third-person singular simple present prunes, present participle pruning, simple past and past participle pruned)

1. (transitive, horticulture) To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.

   A good grape grower will prune the vines once a year.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).

   to prune a budget, or an essay
3. (transitive, computer science) To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
4. (obsolete) To preen; to prepare; to dress.
   • 1676, John Dryden, All For Love, Epilogue.

     For 'tis observed of every scribbling man,

     He grows a fop as fast as e'er he can;

     Prunes up, and asks his oracle, the glass,

     If pink or purple best become his face.

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

Derived terms

• pruning
• alpha-beta pruning ^en

Translations

Anagrams

• Perun, unrep

French

Etymology

From Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *pr?na, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin pr?num, from Ancient Greek ???????? (proûmnon).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?yn/

Noun

prune f (plural prunes)

1. plum
2. (slang) ticket (“traffic citation”)

Derived terms

Further reading

• “prune” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Noun

pr?ne

1. vocative singular of pr?nus

Middle English

Alternative forms

• pruna

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *pr?na, from Latin pr?num, from Ancient Greek ??????? (proûnon), ???????? (proûmnon). Doublet of plomme.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?priu?n(?)/

Noun

prune (plural prunes)

1. A plum (fruit of Prunus domestica)
2. A prune (dried plum)
3. (pathology) A large, rounded boil.

Descendants

• English: prune

References

• “pr?ne, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-05-26.

Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *pr?na, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin pr?num.

Noun

prune f (oblique plural prunes, nominative singular prune, nominative plural prunes)

1. plum (fruit)

Descendants

• French: prune
• Norman: preune
• Walloon: pronne
• ? Middle English: prune, pruna
  • English: prune

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pru.ne/

Noun

prune

1. plural of prun?

English

Etymology

From Dutch snippen (“to snip; shred”) or Low German snippen (“to snip; shred”), of imitative origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sn?p/
• Homophone: SNP
• Rhymes: -?p

Verb

snip (third-person singular simple present snips, present participle snipping, simple past and past participle snipped)

1. To cut with short sharp actions, as with scissors.

2. To reduce the price of a product, to create a snip.
3. To break off; to snatch away.

   • The captain seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores […] but I snipt […] some of it for my own share.

4. (informal) To circumcise.
   • 2001, David Cohen, The Father's Book: Being a Good Dad in the 21st Century, John WIley & Sons Ltd (2001), ?ISBN, page 72:

     Circumcised fathers face a special problem. Do you want your son's willy to be that radically different from your own? So, parents should perhaps not be put off. Be good to your son's future lovers and have him snipped.

   • 2008, Ilene Schneider, Talk Dirty Yiddish: Beyond Drek: The Curses, Slang, and Street Lingo You Need to Know When You Speak Yiddish, Adams Media (2008), ?ISBN, page 150:

     His children, however, were not snipped, possibly because Princess Diana was opposed to the practice, which is out of fashion in England.

   • 2012, Tom Hickman, God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis, Square Peg (2012), ?ISBN, page 144:

     By the outbreak of the First World War such claims had diminished and the medical profession touted circumcision as being 'hygienic' — fathers were not only encouraged to have their newborn sons snipped, but to belatedly enjoy the benefits themselves.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:snip.
5. (Internet) To remove the irrelevant parts of quotations in the reply message.

Translations

Noun

snip (plural snips)

1. The act of snipping; cutting a small amount off of something.
2. A single cut with scissors, clippers, or similar tool.
3. Something acquired for a low price; a bargain.

   That wholesale lot on eBay was a snip at $10

4. A small amount of something; a pinch.
5. (definite, the snip, euphemistic) A vasectomy.
6. A small or weak person, especially a young one.
   • 2010, Ellen Renner, Castle of Shadows, Hachette UK, 2010 ?ISBN.

     'Might as well come out now, you little snip, from wherever you be hiding!'

7. (dated) An impertinent or mischievous person.
   • 1835, William Hamilton Maxwell, My Life (page 283)

     Nor was the lady's establishment more fortunate in gaining the regard of the household. The maid was a verjuiced spinster, too old to love herself, and too ill-natured to look on. The footman was a regular snip […]

8. (obsolete) A share or portion; a snack.
   • 1680, Roger L'Estrange, The Free-Born Subject, Or, the Englishmans Birthright Asserted Against All Tyrannical Vsvrpations Either in Church or State

     His Third Query is a Frank Proposal, without any more ado, of taking all the Church Lands into the Crown; and Courteously he offers the Poor Cavaliers a Snip in the Booty

9. (obsolete, slang) A tailor.

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

   • Template:RQ:Kingsley Alton

Translations

Derived terms

• snipper
• snippy

References

Anagrams

• Insp, NIPs, NPIs, Nips, PINs, PSNI, nips, pins, spin

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch snippe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sn?p/
• Hyphenation: snip
• Rhymes: -?p

Noun

snip f (plural snippen, diminutive snipje n)

1. A snipe or woodcock, thin-beaked bird of the genera Gallinago, Scolopax, Lymnocryptes, Limnodromus and Coenocorypha.
2. (informal, Netherlands) A 100 guilders banknote.

Derived terms

• houtsnip
• poelsnip
• snipverkouden
• watersnip

Descendants

• Afrikaans: snip
• ? Sranan Tongo: snepi