purty

Also found in: Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

pur·ty

(pûr′tē)

adj. Regional

Variant of pretty.

Our Living Language The regionalism purty is a classic example of metathesis, a linguistic process in which two adjacent sounds are reversed in order. Metathesis in English often involves the consonant r and a vowel, since the phonetic properties of r are so vowellike. For example, the word third used to be thrid, and bird, brid. By the same process, English pretty often came to be realized as purty in regional speech. Most such words stabilized because of the influence of printing and the resultant standardized spelling, but purty for pretty has survived in regional American dialects.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

purty

(ˈpɜːtɪ)

adj, -tier or -tiest

pretty

adv

very

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Wall, said the landlord, fetching a long breath, that's a purty long sarmon for a chap that rips a little now and then.

View in context

And it is ralelly more than three fut and a bit that there is, inny how, of the little ould furrener Frinchman that lives jist over the way, and that's a oggling and a goggling the houl day, (and bad luck to him,) at the purty widdy Misthress Tracle that's my own nixt-door neighbor, (God bliss her!) and a most particuller frind and acquaintance?

The truth of the houl matter is jist simple enough; for the very first day that I com'd from Connaught, and showd my swate little silf in the strait to the widdy, who was looking through the windy, it was a gone case althegither with the heart o' the purty Misthress Tracle.

View in context

He had hoped to learn through this fellow whether his little son was aboard the Kincaid, but to every question upon this or kindred subjects the fellow returned but one reply, "Ay tank it blow purty soon purty hard." So after several attempts Tarzan gave it up.

View in context

We was a-standin' purty peaceable fer a spell, 'though there was men runnin' ev'ry way all 'round us, an' while we was a-standin' like that, 'long come a big fat feller.

View in context

'Tisn't often I have a chance to sit down with two such sweet, purty ladies."

View in context

The good-hearted and likeable Sherman is delighted when beautiful chemistry graduate Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett) agrees to go on a date with him.

FILM CHOICE

A quiz competition for high school students was organised at the Katey Purty Auditorium.

Tata Steel celebrates 115th birth anniversary of JRD Tata

Make it purty! We gals aren't afraid of a bit of make-up and neither is that gun, I'll bet!

Leave It Or Not?

Natural Selection is another game on this list that went on to have its own stand-alone game, it's Natural Selection 2 now actually and it looks purty fancy.

18 of the most iconic mods in gaming

(9.) Vivekanandan M, Mani A, Priya YS, Singh AP, Jayakumar S, Purty S.

A Bacterial Profile of Scrub typhus Infections in North Karnataka and their Isolation by Serological and Molecular Method

Mayurbhanj Zilla Parishad Member Shimachal Purty reiterated that despite informing officials, no help has been received regarding the matter so far, and urged administrative officers to pay heed to the troubles faced by locals in the region.