priss

[pris]

noun

1. someone who is excessively prim, proper, or fussy; an affectedly dainty or prissy person.

   Call me a priss, but I think the relentless explicitness in this novel reduces the characters somehow.

verb (used without object)

1. to act or move in a prim, fussy, or affectedly dainty way, like a priss.

   I’m not one to primp and priss over myself in the bathroom.

   At halftime I like to see the baton twirlers priss around in their itty-bitty costumes.

Word History and Origins

Origin of priss¹

An Americanism dating back to 1920–25; back formation from prissy