Middle English Dictionary Entry
prūnelle n.
Entry Info
| Forms | prūnelle n. |
| Etymology | OF prunele & ML prūnella. |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
A small plum; ?a sloe.
Associated quotations
- a1450 *Trev.Barth.[OD col.] (BodeMus 16)1338/4 : Prunelles [Add: Some þinges þat draweþ laxeþ also, and beþ feruent..as it fareþ by prunes, sloon, and thamarindis].
Supplemental Materials (draft)
- c1450(1438) GLeg.Apost.Paul (GiL84) (Eg 876) 445/222 : Who shall yeue water to myn eyen and a well of teeres to my prunelles [L pupillis] so that we wepe night and day for the lyght of the Chirche is queint?
Note: Editor: "prunelles: pupillis LgA; MED has only one citation, for which the sense is 'small plum' (?) sloe'. It had early acquired the subsidiary sense 'pupil of the eye' in French."
Note: New sense.