English Online Dictionary. What means purse? What does purse mean?
English
Etymology
From Middle English purse, from Old English purs (“purse”), partly from pusa (“wallet, bag, scrip”) and partly from burse (“pouch, bag”).
Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (“bag, sack, scrip”), from Proto-Indo-European *būs- (“to swell, stuff”), and is cognate with Old High German pfoso (“pouch, purse”), Low German pūse (“purse, bag”), Old Norse posi (“purse, bag”), Danish pose (“purse, bag”), Dutch beurs (“purse, bag”). Old English burse comes from Medieval Latin bursa (“leather bag”) (compare English bursar), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, wine-skin”).
Compare also Old French borse (French bourse), Old Saxon bursa (“bag”), Old High German burissa (“wallet”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /pɜːs/
- (US) IPA(key): /pɝs/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
- Homophone: perse
Noun
purse (plural purses)
- A small bag for carrying money.
- (US) A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)
- A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.
- (historical) A specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.
Synonyms
- (small bag for carrying money): pocketbook; coin purse, change purse (especially US)
- (small bag used by women): handbag (especially UK)
- (quantity of money): bursary, grant
Derived terms
Related terms
- bursa, bursar, bursary
- reimburse
Translations
See also
- wallet
Verb
purse (third-person singular simple present purses, present participle pursing, simple past and past participle pursed)
- (transitive) To press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude.
- 1901, Matilde Serao, The Land of Cockayne, translator not credited, London: Heinemann, Chapter IV, p. 72, [1]
- The serving Sister pursed up her lips to remind him of the cloistral rule, almost as if she wanted to prevent any conversation between him and the nun.
- 1916, Leonid Andreyev, "An Original" in The Little Angel and Other Stories, translated by W. H. Lowe, New York: Alfred Knopf, p. 85, [2]
- Anton Ivanovich pursed up his lower lip so that his grey moustache pressed against the tip of his red pitted nose, took in all the officials with his rounded eyes, and after an unavoidable pause emitted a fat unctuous laugh.
- 1901, Matilde Serao, The Land of Cockayne, translator not credited, London: Heinemann, Chapter IV, p. 72, [1]
- To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles; to pucker; to knit.
- To put into a purse.
- (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To steal purses; to rob.
Synonyms
- pucker
Derived terms
- pursy
- unpurse
Translations
Anagrams
- sprue, Rupes, Pre-Us, re-ups, pures, super, Super, Prues, super-, reups, rupes, puers
Estonian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpurse/
Noun
purse (genitive purske, partitive purset)
- outburst
- eruption
- explosion
- spurt, gush
Declension
Derived terms
- seemnepurse
Finnish
Etymology
pursua + -e
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpurseˣ/, [ˈpurs̠e̞(ʔ)]
- Rhymes: -urse
- Hyphenation(key): pur‧se
Noun
purse
- excess material that gushes or bursts out, such as plaster from under a brick
- (metallurgy) flash (material left around the edge of a moulded part at the parting line of the mould)
Declension
Further reading
- “purse”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03
Anagrams
- persu, perus, perus-, super-