missish

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   dated and usually disapproving: affectedly prim, prudish, or overly proper in a way stereotypically associated with a young unmarried woman

   She refused to appear missish and laughed off the harmless rumor.

Formed in the late eighteenth century from miss, then a noun for a young unmarried woman, + -ish. It first meant characteristic of such a young woman and developed a disapproving sense of affected primness, prudery, or excessive propriety.

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