Crossword Dictionary
prude
prude - n
a person excessively concerned about propriety and decorum
Synonyms
bluenose, moralist, Mrs. Grundy, nice nelly, puritan, wowser [chiefly Australian]
sentence examples
“He is too much of a prude to enjoy movies containing sex and violence.â€
"the racy sitcom frequently satirizes exactly the sort of prude who would like to see the show taken off the air"
“But her warnings go ignored by Ellie, who accuses her sister of being an overprotective prude."
etymology
prude (n.)
1704, "woman who affects or upholds modesty in conduct and thought in a degree considered rigid and excessive," from French prude "excessively prim or demure woman," first recorded in Molière.
Perhaps it is a false back-formation or an ellipsis of preudefemme "a discreet, modest woman," from Old French prodefame "noblewoman, gentlewoman; wife, consort," the fem. equivalent of prudhomme "a brave man". Or perhaps the French noun is from the French adjective prude "prudish," from Old French prude, prode, preude, which however is attested only in a laudatory sense, "good, virtuous, modest," a feminine form of the adjective preux. Also occasionally as an adjective in English 18c.; the application of the noun to a man was still considered rare at the end of 19c.