▪ I. pursy, a.1
(ˈpɜːsɪ)
Also 5 purcy, 6 poursye, porzy, 6–8 pursie, 7 purcie, 7–9 pursey.
[Later form of pursif pursive, with the ending -if reduced to -i, -y as in hasty, jolly, tardy, etc.]
1. Short-winded, asthmatic, puffy; = pursive.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 416/2 Purcy, in wynd drawynge, cardiacus. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §84 Pursy is a dysease in an horses bodye, and maketh hym to blowe shorte, and appereth at his nosethrilles, and commeth of colde. 1528 Paynel Salerne's Regim. D ij, We ought to take good hede..that we make not our selfe poursye. 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 885 A pursie man, or that fetcheth his breath often, as it were almost windlesse. 1621 Quarles Argalus & P. (1678) 89 Thy pamper'd Steeds are pursie, drive away. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 51 Good Medicine to cure..short-winded or pursy Horses. |
2. Fat, corpulent.
[Due to the close association of short-windedness with fatness, and of this with the notion of a swollen purse or bag, as in pursy a.2]
| 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 133 They that bee by nature very porzy and grosse, live as long as they that be slender bodied. 1607 T. Walkington Opt. Glass i. (1664) 9 [He] was grown so pursie, that his fatness would not suffer him to fetch his breath. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. xx. (1776) 76 The neck, thick and pursy, is joined to the head. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk., Christm. Day §20 A short pursy man, stooping and labouring at a bass-viol, so as to show nothing but the top of a round bald head, like the egg of an ostrich. 1862 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xiv. i. (1865) V. 145 An elderly fat gentleman, pursy, scant of breath. |
| fig. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. iv. 153 In the fatnesse of this pursie times, Vertue it selfe, of Vice must pardon begge. 1654 Trapp Comm. Neh. i. 9 (1657) II. 45 Our short legges and pursie hearts cannot hold out here. |
▪ II. pursy, a.2
(ˈpɜːsɪ)
[f. purse n. + -y.]
1. a. Of cloth, the skin, etc.: Having puckers, puckered; drawn together like a purse-mouth.
| 1552 Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI, c. 6 §27 If..Cloth..prove either pursie, baudy, squally by Warp or Woof. 1613 J. May Declar. Est. Clothing v. 27 The mill leaues them shame⁓full in cockelles, baudes, pursey, narrower in some places than in other. 1835 Willis Pencillings II. xxi. 234 His heavy, oily black eyes twinkled in their pursy recesses. 1882 Mrs. Raven's Tempt. I. 4 Her pursy mouth softened. |
b. Of clouds, ? Bagging, swollen; heavy.
| 1650 H. Vaughan Silex Scint., Dawning 21 The pursie Clouds disband, and scatter, All expect some sudden matter. |
2. Having a full purse; rich, wealthy; purse-proud.
| 1602 Manningham Diary (Camden) 48 One said, yong Mr. Leake was verry rich, and fatt, ‘True’, said B. Reid, ‘pursy men are fatt for the most part’. 1839 Times 21 Sept., Their pursy pride has been signally humbled. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, ix. Cockayne Wks. (Bohn) II. 64 The pursy man means by freedom the right to do as he pleases. 1905 Daily Chron. 29 Apr. 4/4 He is the precise antithesis of the conventional ‘moneyed man’. A less ‘pursey’ man it would be impossible to imagine. |