English
purse
Purse comes from Middle English purs ‘bag, sack, pouch’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *pusô.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pusô‘bag, wallet, scrip’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pusōreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150pusa‘wallet, bag, scrip’
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150purs
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘bag, sack, pouch’
- Englishearliest quotation 1550purse
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pusô‘bag, wallet, scrip’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pusōreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150pusa‘wallet, bag, scrip’
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150purs
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘bag, sack, pouch’
- Englishearliest quotation 1550purse
Earliest quotation: 1550, Steuen Mierdman: “And then muſt many a man occupie as farre…”
The story
Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (‘bag, sack, scrip’), and is cognate with Old High German pfoso (‘pouch, purse’), Low German pūse (‘purse, bag’), Old Norse posi (‘purse, bag’), Danish pose (‘purse, bag’). Old English burse comes from Medieval Latin bursa (‘leather bag’) (compare English bursar), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, wine-skin”).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bew-
bill, pick, bowl, pocket, bulletin, pose, buckle, pique, pout, bouillon, picot, bulla, pock, piqué, 17 more
Today it means
noun A small bag for carrying money.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *pusô / purse