prune

Meanings

Noun

• A plum.
• The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
• An old woman, especially a wrinkly one.

Verb

• To become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
• To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
• To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
• To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
• To preen; to prepare; to dress.

Origin

• From Middle English prune, from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦνον, variant of προῦμνον, a loanword from a language of Asia Minor. plum.
• From Old French proignier, earlier prooignier, ultimately from Latin pro- ("front") + rotundus 'to round-off the front'.