Literary notes about Prim (AI summary)
The word "prim" is employed across literary works to evoke a sense of meticulous propriety and restrained decorum, often imbuing characters or settings with a measured, sometimes ironic formality. Authors depict persons with "prim" qualities to suggest an almost exaggerated adherence to social decorum, as seen when a character is described as both "prim and proper" ([1],[2],[3]) or when a space is rendered "prim, fleckless" to convey a pristine order ([4]). At times, the term contrasts sharply with more impulsive or unguarded attitudes, heightening the comic or critical tone of a narrative ([5],[6]). In other contexts, it can allude to an antique or original state, thereby enriching the descriptive texture of the work.
- She’s awfully prim and proper and she’ll scold dreadfully about this, I know.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - There we saw a prim gentleman, with a clean-shaven, lawyer's face.
— from The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan - "As for you, Amy," continued Meg, "you are altogether too particular and prim.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott - The papers extended across the hall and into a prim, fleckless parlor.
— from Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery - "We both bowed, and then we laughed, for the prim introduction and the blunt addition were rather a comical contrast.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott - "I hate to think I've got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China Aster!
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott