subs. (old).—1. A wanton: see TART.
1509. BARCLAY, Ship of Fooles [JAMIESON (1874), i. 250]. [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 379: ‘The French had a phrase cheveux primes, delicate hair; a PRYME means a paramour: our adjective prim has now a very different sense; but we still talk of a prime cut.’]
c. 1520. The Booke of Mayd Emlyn [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, IV. 84].
| The yonge lusty PRYMME | |
| She coude byte and whyne, | |
| Whan she saw her tyme, | |
| And with a prety gynne | |
| Gyue her husbande an horne. |
1548. BARCLAY, The Fyfte Egloge.
| About all London there was no proper PRIM, | |
| But long time had bene familier with him. |
2. (old).—‘A very neat or affected person.’—B. E. (c. 1696).
