purse

👛

Meaning

1. A small bag for carrying money.
2. A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)
3. A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.
4. A specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.

press together

hand-bag

portmonnaie

leather bag

money-bag

pooch out

small bag

fight money

make narrower

sacculus

budget

seed-vessel

close tightly

monetary resource

pecuniary resource

receptacle for money

sma11 bag

hangbag

horse collar

monetary fund

pocket-book

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pɜːs/

From Middle English purse, from Old English purs (“purse”), partly from pusa (“wallet, bag, scrip”) and partly from burse (“pouch, bag”). Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (“bag, sack, scrip”), from Proto-Indo-European *būs- (“to swell, stuff”), and is cognate with Old High German pfoso (“pouch, purse”), Low German pūse (“purse, bag”), Old Norse posi (“purse, bag”), Danish pose (“purse, bag”), Dutch beurs (“purse, bag”). Old English burse comes from Medieval Latin bursa (“leather bag”) (compare English bursar), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, wine-skin”). Compare also Old French borse (French bourse), Old Saxon bursa (“bag”), Old High German burissa (“wallet”).