prawn

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small sea creature with a shell and ten legs, eaten as food and similar to a shrimp.

   We ordered a plate of grilled prawns at the restaurant.

2. 2
   verb

   To fish for prawns.

   They went prawning along the coast at dawn.

First attested early 1400s as various Middle English forms prayne, prane, praune, and prawne, which present no clear cognates in languages other than English. The forms suggest a hypothetical Old English form *prægn, where *æg would have evolved into Middle English *ay, but it is unclear if the word is of Germanic origin, from another European language, or loaned from a substrate. In the Isle of Wight, a word prankle ("prawn") is recorded and thought to be related. Century, following Skeat, suggested transposition of an unrecorded Old French *parne, *perne related to Spanish perna (“a flat she…

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