prick-eared, having sharply pointed, erect ears; prycke-eared, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 77; Hen. V, ii. 1. 44.
pricket, a buck in his second year, having straight unbranched horns. L. L. L. iv. 2. 12; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 5 (Ralph). ME. pryket, ‘capriolus’ (Prompt. EETS. 316; see notes, no. 1681).
prickle, a wicker basket, for fruit or flowers. B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 3). In Kent used for a basket of a certain measure (EDD.). See NED.
prick-me-dainty, finical in language and behaviour. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Trupeny). Still in use in Scotland (EDD.).
prick-song, music written down or sung from notes. Romeo, ii. 4. 21; Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 41. ‘The nightingale’s song, being more regularly musical than any other, was called pricksong’ (Nares). ‘Prick-song’ used to mean counterpoint as distinguished from ‘plain-song’, mere melody.
priefe, preife, proof, trial. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 48; Mother Hubberd, 408. Priefe = F. preuve, as people (pron. peeple) = F. peuple.
prieve, to prove. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 33; vi. 12. 18. Prieve = OF. prueve (preuve); L. próbat, with the stress on the stem-syllable, whereas prove = F. prouver (OF. prover) = L. probáre.
prig a prancer, to steal a horse (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Higgen); Audeley, Vagabonds, p. 4; Harman, Caveat, pp. 42, 43, 84. See Dict. (s.v. Prig, 1).
prima-vista, an old game at cards, resembling primero, and sometimes identified with it. Primviste, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 13 (ed. Arber, p. 33); ‘Prima . . . a game at cardes, called Prime, Primero, or Primavista’ (Florio). Ital. prima vista, ‘first seen, because he that can first show such an order of cards wins the game’ (Minsheu).
primum mobile, the ‘First Movement’, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the outer sphere (of a system of spheres), which turns round from east to west once in 24 hours, carrying all the inner spheres with it. Bacon, Essay 15, § 4; Essay 51 (end). In Dante the Primum Mobile is called the Crystalline Heaven (‘Cielo Cristallino’), see Paget Toynbee’s Dante Dictionary.