preen

• vt.着飾る；見栄を張る；褒める
• vi. 自惚れる；着飾る；自分をきれいにする

prune spelling variantから、丸くする、剪定する、刈り込む、鳥の羽を整えるのに使われる、派生語 dress, groom.

preen

preen: [14] Preen is generally taken to be an alteration of prune ‘cut branches’, under the influence of another now obsolete verb preen ‘pierce’, a descendant of the Old English noun prēon ‘pin’ (the notion presumably being of a bird ‘piercing’ its feathers with its beak when cleaning them).
=> prune

preen (v.)

"to trim, to dress up," late 14c., perhaps a variation of Middle English proynen, proinen "trim the feather with the beak" (see prune (v.)); or perhaps from Old French poroindre "anoint before," and Old French proignier "round off, prune." Middle English prene (from Old English preon, a general Germanic word) meant "to pin," and probably influenced the form of this word. Watkins, however, connects it with Latin unguere "to smear, anoint."

Because of the popularity of falconry, bird activities formerly were more closely observed and words for them were more precise in English than today.

Youre hawke proynith and not pikith and she prenyth not bot whan she begynnyth at hir leggys, and fetcheth moystour like oyle at hir taill. ["Book of St. Albans," 1486]

1. Rare birds preen themselves right in front of your camera.

レンズの前で羽をとかす鳥はめったにいません。

2.He never cared a preen for her.

彼は彼女のことを少しも気にしていない。

3.They sat in Germaine Rocher 's salon watching the languid mannequins preen and simper.

彼女たちはジミー?ローチェのギャラリーに座って、疲れたファッションモデルが服装や作り笑いを自慢するのを見ている。

4.Brian：Oh.Well，next time， preen yourself before asking her out.

ブライアン：おお.じゃ、今度彼女を誘って出かける前に、おしゃれをしておきましょう。

5.Do not preen yourself on defeating so weak a person.

弱い者を負かすことを誇りに思ってはいけない。