princox

[ prin-koks, pring- ]

noun

, Archaic.

1. a self-confident young fellow; coxcomb.

Word History and Origins

Origin of princox¹

First recorded in 1530–40; origin uncertain

Example Sentences

The critic R. P. Blackmur listed nineteen words that Stevens had fished from obscurity, including “fubbed,” “gobbet,” “diaphanes,” “pannicles,” “carked,” “rapey,” “cantilena,” “fiscs,” “phylactery,” “princox,” and “funest.”

From The New Yorker

The titles of the poems show the mood, Peter Quince at the Clavier, The Comedian as the Letter C, Hymn from a Watermelon Pavilion, Colloquy with a Polish Aunt, "princox, citherns, toucans, gasconade."

From Time Magazine Archive

It may be etymologically connected with ‘prin,’ in old French, meaning ‘demure;’ also with ‘princox,’ a ‘coxcomb,’ and with the word ‘prender,’ which occurs more than once in Skelton: e.g.

From Project Gutenberg

What princox have we here, that dares me to assail?

From Project Gutenberg

You do well, Sir Raderic, to bestow your living upon such an one as will be content to share, and on Sunday to say nothing; whereas your proud university princox thinks he is a man of such merit the world cannot sufficiently endow him with preferment.

From Project Gutenberg