purprise
English edit
Etymology edit
From Old French porpris, from porprendre (“to take away entirely”); por- (“for”) + prendre (“to take”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
purprise (plural purprises)
- (obsolete) A close or enclosure; the compass of a manor.
- 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
- The place of justice is an hallowed place ; and therefore , not only the bench , but the foot – pace and precincts , and purprise thereof , ought to be preserved without scandal and corruption
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “purprise”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)