prawn

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A crustacean of the suborder Dendrobranchiata.
2. (Commonwealth, countable, uncountable) A crustacean, sometimes confused with shrimp.
3. (Australia, colloquial, countable, derogatory, uncountable) Synonym of butterface: A woman with an attractive body but an unattractive face.
4. (Australia, countable, slang, uncountable) A fool, an idiot.

Verb

To fish for prawns.

Synonyms

shrimp

🦐

crayfish

lobster

🦞

crawfish

macroura

prawns

shrimps

fresh-water prawn

Translations

crevette

🦐

gamba

🦐

Garnele

🦐

camarón

🦐

garnaal

🦐

gamberetto

🦐

γαρίδα

steurgarnaal

gambero

granchiolino

camarão

🦐

langostino

جمبري

gamba

🦵

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pɹɔːn/

Etymology

Cognate with Spanish: perna

In summary

First attested early 1400s as various Middle English forms prayne, prane, praune, and prawne, which present no clear cognates in languages other than English. The forms suggest a hypothetical Old English form *prægn, where *æg would have evolved into Middle English *ay, but it is unclear if the word is of Germanic origin, from another European language, or loaned from a substrate. In the Isle of Wight, a word prankle ("prawn") is recorded and thought to be related. Century, following Skeat, suggested transposition of an unrecorded Old French *parne, *perne related to Spanish perna (“a flat shellfish”), Old Italian perna and diminutive pernochie, parnocchie, glossed as "shrimps or prawne, fishes" by John Florio, but the OED considers Florio's entry incorrect and the suggested connection semantically and phonologically implausible.
Sense 3 ("woman with attractive body and unattractive face") is from the idea of discarding the head of a prawn before eating it.