Dictionary

prosy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈpɹəʊzi/ (UK)

Etymology

Etymology tree English prose Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English prosy From prose + -y.

Meanings

1. (of speech or writing) Unpoetic; dull and unimaginative.
2. (of a person) Behaving in a dull way; boring, tedious.
   • "Well, well, we all get a bit prosy sometimes," said Lord John. 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
   • CHARMIAN. He makes you so terribly prosy and serious and learned and philosophical. It is worse than being religious, at our ages. 1898, George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra:
   • I cannot imagine his pupil regarding him as anything but a prosy old pedant, set over him by his father to keep him out of mischief. 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.19:

Forms

Deriveds

unprosy · prosily · prosiness

Relateds

prose

Translations (6)

bg прозаичен (without imagination) · bg скучен (without imagination) · fi mielikuvitukseton (without imagination) · mi āmiki (without imagination) · pl prozaiczny (without imagination) · de nüchtern (without imagination)